Rio Gomez was born October 20, 1994 in Miami, Florida. He is the son of late ESPN reporter Pedro Gomez & his mother Sandi. He is 1 of 3 children.
He grew up in Phoenix & was cut from the varsity baseball team at Desert Vista High his senior year.
He went to Mesa Community College & walked on to the baseball team. He pitched all of 1/3 of an inning & allowed a run.
He then transferred to the University of Arizona where he walked on to the baseball team & immediately found great success, allowing 2 runs in 21 innings for an 0.86 ERA.
Things got less smooth over the next couple seasons for the lefty (4.32 & 4.82 ERA), but in 2017, he became the Red Sox 36th round pick & received a $10k signing bonus.
From that draft, 1st rounder Tanner Houck & 16th rounder Kutter Crawford are currently a big part of the Red Sox pitching staff.
The only other players still in the organization are 7th rounder Tyler Esplin (AA), 14th rounder Aaron Perry (A+), 18th rounder Dominic LoBrutto (who hasn't pitched since '21 due to injury), & 29th rounder Tyler Dearden (AA). All could be described as organizational filler.
In 2017, Gomez reported to the Rooke League Gulf Coast Red Sox where he put up a 1.98 ERA in 27.1 innings before being promoted to the low-A Lowell Spinners where he put up a 9 ERA in 5 innings.
In 2018, Gomez returned to Lowell where he put up a 1.65 ERA in 27.1 innings before being promoted to our then A-Ball affiliate, Greenville, where he recorded a 3.24 ERA in 8.1 innings.
In 2019, Gomez dominated at Greenville with a 1.09 ERA in 24.2 innings before being promoted to our then high-A affiliate, Salem, where he recorded a 2.80 ERA in 45 innings.
2020 was a lost year. He lost his father, the famed baseball reporter who covered 25 World Series and 22 All Star Games, to a heart attack in February 2021 at the age of 58.
By 2021, Greenville was the high-A affiliate, & that's where Gomez started his season, recording a 4.70 ERA in 7.2 innings before being promoted to AA Portland, where he had a 3.43 ERA in 39.1 innings.
In 2022, Rio missed the 1st 7 weeks of the season with myocarditis, a condition that may have continued to impact him during the season. For the first time in his Red Sox career, he did not move up during a season, & ended up with a 6.55 ERA in 33 innings.
Prior to the 2023 season, Gomez participated in the WBC for his mother's home country, Colombia (his father's parents emigrated from Cuba, 20 days before Pedro was born & 2 months before the Cuban missile crisis). He pitched 1.1 innings of scoreless relief against Canada.
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In 2023, Rio started the year in Portland where he had a 6.41 ERA in 19.1 innings, but was promoted to Worcester anyway. To this point in his career, Gomez had been almost exclusively a relief pitcher - starting only 5 professional games.
However, Worcester has been having a lot of turnover in their rotation, & as a result, Gomez has started in 8 of his 11 games with Worcester this season. In 37 innings, Gomez has a 3.89 ERA.
Rio has been even better lately. In his last 5 games he has pitched 13 innings, allowing 3 runs on 10 hits with 7 walks & 16 strikeouts (2.08 ERA).
The 6' lefty who throws from a 3/4 arm slot has a fastball that tops out around 90 and sinks, a 1-7 slider, & a deceptive changeup.
We will see what the future holds for the 28 y/o. Hopefully he pitches well after all this
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https://nesn.com/2023/06/check-out-this-wild-catch-by-woosox-pitcher-rio-gomez/
