Who is he and where does he come from?
He’s Danny Coulombe and he comes from Scottsdale, Arizona, where he attended one of those powerhouse warm-weather high schools that somehow produces more baseball players in a decade than most New England schools produce in a century. Paul Konerko, Ike Davis, and Brian Bannister are all alumni of Coulombe’s Chaparral High School, as is the actress Busy Phillips, the Bella Twins of WWE, and Stephanie Meyer, vampire romance millionaire.
But Coulombe’s journey to the Notable Alumni tab of his high school’s
Wikipedia page was an arduous one. In fact, fifteen years ago he almost gave up on baseball altogether. This was after a disastrous freshman season at USC, where he only made four appearances, and an even worse sophomore campaign at a Phoenix-area community college, where he injured his shoulder in the first inning of first start and was lost for the year.
Coulombe considered calling it quits, but made one more transfer, this time to Texas Tech, where he not only made it through his opening day start, but threw the bulk of the workload in a combined two-hitter. Coulombe was injured again after just 21 innings and underwent Tommy John surgery. But the Dodgers liked what they saw in his small sample size and to took him in the 25th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. Coulombe made his big league debut two years later and subsequently put together an 11-year career as a left-handed reliever, primarily with the A’s and Twins. The Red Sox signed him yesterday to a one-year, $1 million deal.
Is he any good?
In 40 appearances for the Twins last year, Coulombe put up an eye-popping 371 ERA+, making him one of the most dominant relievers in the game for most of the season (Aroldis Chapman’s ERA+ last year was just 351, for comparison’s sake). He is the dictionary definition of a crafty lefty: a guy who strikes out a ton of batters and limits walks (when healthy, his strikeout and walk rates are both consistently well above average), and does it all with a fastball that averages just a touch over 90 MPH, making him one of the baseball’s softest tossers.
Given the success he’s had, you’re probably wondering why the Red Sox were able to sign him for just a million bucks. Well, the first thing to consider is that Coulombe has never been able to shake the injuries that started dogging him back in college. From 2022 through 2025, Coulombe averaged just 39 games a season, missing time due to injuries to his hips, bicep, elbow, forearm, and shoulder. That’s a lot of body parts! Moreover, Coulumbe was traded from the Twins to the Rangers at the deadline last year, and was absolutely horrible in Arlington, giving up 11 hits and an ugly 9 walks in just 12 innings.
Entering his age-36 season, Coulombe is very much in the Eddie Harris phase of his career, getting by on guile and guts and hoping his body holds up for another season or two.
Tl;dr, just give me his 2025 stats.
With the Twins: 31.0 IP, 1.16 ERA, 31 K, 21 H, 9 BB, 0 HR
With the Rangers: 12.0 IP, 5.25 ERA, 12 K, 11 H, 9 BB, 3 HR
Show me a cool highlight.
Here’s his 2025 highlight reel. Check out how frustrated these hitters are. When he’s right, Coulombe is the type of pitcher who leads to a lot of broken bats — not from making contact with his pitches, but from making contact with the dugout walls.
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
He appears to be attempting a cartwheel before delivering a pitch. That’s definitely against the rules, but it’s also the type of move that Bugs Bunny might pull out while twirling yet another perfect game, which only burnishes Coulombe’s crafty lefty credentials even more.
What’s his role on the 2026 Red Sox?
Well, as Jacob Roy pointed out just yesterday in his horribly-timed preview of the Red Sox left-handed relievers, the Sox were seriously lacking in depth in that part of the roster, with Jovani Moran being the leading candidate to be the first lefty arm out of the bullpen. Coulombe will immediately step into that role. How long he stays there will be determined by his health and whether he can fix whatever went wrong for him last year in Texas.
