Bio
Luis De La Rosa comes to Sioux City after being released on March 11 from the Boston Red Sox organization. De La Rosa, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was originally signed by the Kansas City Royals as a 16-year-old on July 6, 2018. He would play one season with the Royals organization before being acquired by the Boston Red Sox as a player-to-be-named-later in a three-team deal between the Royals, Red Sox and New York Mets in June of 2021.
Last season De La Rosa would pitch in 28 games (six starts) at A level Salem, going 2-7 with a 2.94 ERA. He would pitch 70.1 innings, surrendering 23 earned runs on 53 hits while issuing 40 walks with 88 strikeouts. De La Rosa would finish with a 1.322 WHIP and lead the club in strikeouts while finishing third in innings pitched. His 70.1 innings pitched set a career high for the right-hander.
In 2022, De La Rosa would begin the season with the Red Sox Florida Complex club, logging 14.1 innings with a 1-0 record and a 1.26 ERA. He added 20 strikeouts with a 0.977 WHIP only giving up two runs in four games. De La Rosa would make three starts in Florida and surrender just five hits. In two starts against the FCL Braves and FCL Twins in late June, De La Rosa did not allow a run over 8.1 combined innings of work. The right-hander struck out 15 of the 34 batters he faced while issuing two hits, four walks, and hitting three. The two outings earned De La Rosa the Florida Complex League Pitcher of the Week for the week of June 27-July 3. His season numbers earned him a July promotion to A-level Salem where he would go 2-2 with a 4.72 ERA in 34.1 innings. De La Rosa would appear in 11 games out of the pen striking out 38 while allowing 12 walks, 31 hits and 18 earned runs.
De La Rosa spent all the 2021 season with the Red Sox Florida Complex Club, pitching in eight games (five starts) and going 1-0 with one save and a 3.04 ERA. He would allow nine earned runs in 26.2 innings on 19 hits with 21 punch outs. His 2021 numbers are skewed heavily by a single outing where he gave up six earned runs in 0.2 IP. Minus that outing, he gave up just three earned runs in 26 innings.
De La Rosa would miss out on his first season with the Red Sox organization due to the cancellation of the MiLB season in 2020. In his lone season with the Kansas City Royals organization, he would make 11 starts with one bull pen appearance in the Dominican Summer League. He would post a 2-1 record with a 2.33 ERA in 38.2 innings and tie for the team lead in strikeouts with 52. De La Rosa has a four-pitch repertoire. A native of the Dominican Republic was primarily a shortstop growing up but was converted to pitcher shortly before signing as a professional with Kansas City.