Boston Red Sox rookie right-handed pitcher Hunter Dobbins is harboring plenty of contempt towards the New York Yankees as he prepares for the first start of his career against them on Sunday night.
“My dad was a diehard Red Sox fan,” he said, per Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald. “And I’ve said it before, that if the Yankees were the last team to give me a contract, I’d retire.”
Dobbins is far from the only player to openly shut down the idea of ever playing for the Yankees, as Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made similar proclamations that stemmed from their experiences with the club while watching their fathers play in the major leagues.
As Dobbins noted, his father Lance was a staunch supporter of the Red Sox long before his son joined the organization, though he was a pitcher himself and was actually drafted by New York before being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“He was actually drafted twice by the Yankees,” Dobbins said. “Signed with them his last year and then he got traded over to the Diamondbacks.”
Lance never reached the majors and thus never had the opportunity to take out his hatred for the Yankees in that regard, though his son will have a chance to do so under the bright lights in the Bronx.
An eighth-round pick out of Texas Tech in the 2021 MLB Draft, Dobbins posted a 3.08 ERA in 25 minor league outings for Boston last season before making his big league debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 6 earlier this year.
Over nine appearances and 44 1/3 innings for the Red Sox thus far, he’s pitched to a respectable 4.06 ERA with 37 strikeouts.
Dobbins will have his hands full against a Yankees team that has the best OPS of any AL club against right-handed pitchers at .795, but he’s raring to go nonetheless.
“Growing up with my dad being a Red Sox fan, this has been always kind of one of those starts that I’ve had circled on my calendar,” he said, according to MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. And being able to make that start in a Red Sox uniform, it’s gonna be special.”
