Drake Britton

Left-hander Drake Britton had one win and one loss in his time in the big leagues, but he has a World Championship ring to treasure forever as a member of the 2013 Boston Red Sox. It was a year in which he almost lost the opportunity to pitch.

John Drake Britton was born in Waco, Texas, on May 22, 1989. His parents were Craig and Cathy Britton. Drake had an older sister, Taylor, and a younger brother, Chance. Cathy Britton had been a high-school math teacher who became a stay-at-home mom to look after the children. Craig was an architect who worked in commercial architecture for companies like CDI Engineering and ConocoPhillips. His work frequently took him overseas to such places as Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

Drake grew up with a Magnolia, Texas, address, in a Houston suburb. “We were right on the line between Tomball and Magnolia,” he said in a May 2021 interview, “but I went to Tomball High School.”1

He is no relation to three major-league pitchers Zack Britton, Chris Britton, or Jim Britton, or to 1913 Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Gil Britton.

Other Brittons in baseball were Helene Robison Britton, who owned the St. Louis Cardinals from 1911 to 1916, and John Britton, an infielder who played for the Birmingham Black Barons in Negro League baseball.

Drake went to high school in Tomball. In 2006 he was named to the roster of the 2006 Aflac All-American Classic, played in San Diego.2 That same year, he was selected to participate in the Junior Olympics operated by USA Baseball; though he didn’t make the final team, he went through the workouts and played in some of the scrimmages in Arizona. 

On graduation from Tomball High, Drake was selected by the Red Sox in the 23rd round of the June 2007 major-league draft, the 714th pick overall. He signed on August 15 for a reported $700,000 bonus later that year.3 He had made a commitment to Texas A&M, but did not attend. “I signed with the Red Sox at the deadline, at 11:59.” Red Sox scout Jim Robinson is credited with the signing, under team scouting director Jason McLeod, who said the Red Sox had followed Britton for about a year. He had what McLeod said was “a bad spring, but we saw him throw this summer and he has what we determine to be very good makeup. We’ve had him up to 94 [miles per hour.]”4

Britton said of Robinson, “Jim’s great. He was our area scout.” One of the other players Robinson signed, Britton noted, was Will Middlebrooks, a fifth-round selection in that year’s draft.

Britton’s first year in pro ball was not until the following year, 2008, when he pitched in eight games for the Single-A Lowell Spinners, working 33⅔ innings, striking out 26 but walking 16. His ERA in the short season was 4.28, with a record of 1-2, but late in the season he suffered an injury that required Tommy John surgery in October.

Britton didn’t pitch much in 2009 because of the surgery, but came back relatively quickly, getting in a few innings before the season was over, with both the Spinners and the rookie league Gulf Coast Red Sox. He worked fewer than 12 innings, facing just 51 batters.

The 2010 season was Britton’s first full year. He pitched for the Class-A South Atlantic League’s Greenville Drive, starting 21 games for the Red Sox affiliate. He struck out 78 batters in 75⅔ innings and recorded an ERA of 2.97. He pitched and won the first game of the league playoffs. His fastball had gotten up to 96, post-surgery.5 Baseball America ranked him fifth among Red Sox prospects.6

He had a rough year in 2011, going by statistics. His 2011 season was with the Salem (Virginia) Red Sox, in the Advanced-A Carolina League. Britton started 26 games and won only one of them, losing 13. His 1-13 record reflected to some extent his 6.91 earned-run average, significantly higher than the team’s 4.16 ERA. His WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) was 1.70. The total of 13 losses was more than that of any other pitcher in the league, and the ERA was the worst among league starters.

Britton was, nonetheless, promoted. The Red Sox weren’t ready to give up on either him or fellow prospect Stolmy Pimentel, who had been considered perhaps Boston’s top two pitching prospects. Pimentel had gone 0-9 with a 9.12 ERA for Portland and then 6-4 (4.53) for Salem. Mike Hazen, Red Sox VP of player development, said, “We’ve told these guys that this season has to be the most important one in terms of development. They need to learn from what happened.”7 The following spring both were placed on the Red Sox’ 40-man roster and signed to major-league contracts at the major-league minimum of $480,000, representing a further investment.8 

Why did Britton seem to fare so poorly? Reminded of the statistics, he laughed and said of the ERA, “That was lower than I thought! It was a humbling year.” He had a bad game and then another, and then a third, and found himself wrestling with anxiety about his performance. “It was the first time I’d experienced that. I just kind of let it consume me, snowball on me. Letting it get in my head. Over-thinking.” Being placed on the 40-man roster let him know the Red Sox had confidence in him.

Britton was placed with Salem again in 2012. He was 3-5 in 10 games with an ERA of 5.80 but in early June he was promoted to Double-A Portland. In his June 5 debut he walked six batters in the first three innings, but didn’t allow a hit through five, and earned a 6-1 win over Bowie.

He had the support of his family throughout but three coaches stood out for their support and encouragement during his early years. “Kevin Walker, my pitching coach from Low A to High A, he was always huge. Always positive. Left-handed pitcher. He always had my back. Kevin Boles, who I played for manager-wise, he always had my back. Bob Kipper, Double A. He was incredible. Always tried to keep the glass half-full for me and let me see the positive. To help train my mind to not dwell on the negatives. They’re the three main people who stick out.”

Britton was invited to 2013 spring training with the Red Sox but early in March was optioned to Portland. He was also arrested for driving under the influence. The arrest occurred on March 2 in Estero, Florida, at 4:42 A.M. He was timed driving 111 mph in a 45-mph zone and faced the possibility of up to a year in jail.9 Alex Speier of WEEI radio quoted Britton as saying, “I’m extremely remorseful. … I’m sorry for the negativity that I brought, but that’s about all I can say right now. I’d really rather not say anything else.”10

Britton had several good outings with Portland, including the first complete game of his professional career, a June 11 win over Erie. He was named to the Eastern League All-Star team, along with batterymate Christian Vázquez. In early July, with a 7-6 record and a 3.51 ERA, he was promoted to Triple-A Pawtucket. In his first start for the PawSox, on July 9 against Lehigh Valley, he worked 5⅓ innings and allowed five earned runs.

The Red Sox were coming off a last-place finish in 2012 but were in first place under new manager John Farrell. The pitching staff was in some degree of flux, however, and Farrell – a former pitching coach – allowed that he would like to see Britton given a shot in the big leagues, perhaps in the bullpen. “A lefthander that has power stuff. We would like see Drake Britton here. Even if it’s just initially getting his feet.”11 The Red Sox were looking for someone who could work multiple innings in relief. He was called up on July 14; to make room, outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was optioned out.

“I didn’t know what to think at first,” a surprised Britton said. “My mind was going a million miles an hour. I was really excited.” He added, “It’s awesome. I had the biggest smile on my face. Nobody could knock it off.”12 

The Boston pitching staff was going through changes. Britton was the sixth Red Sox pitcher to make his major-league debut in 2013.13 His first appearance came on July 20 at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees. With his parents in the stands, he was called into the game in the top of the ninth, New York leading 4-2. There was nobody out and runners were on first and second. The first batter he faced was Ichiro Suzuki. While Britton was pitching, Luis Cruz stole third base. Britton got Suzuki to pop up to shortstop. Robinson Canó lined out to center, Cruz tagging and scoring. Brett Gardner was thrown out trying to steal second.

The Red Sox rookie was back on the mound the next night, throwing a scoreless 10th inning against the Yankees in a game the Red Sox won in the 11th. Reflecting back on his debut several months later, he said, “I had to remember to breathe.”14

Britton threw scoreless innings against Tampa Bay on the 24th and in Baltimore against the Orioles on the 26th. On July 29 he worked two scoreless innings against the Rays. He’d thrown six innings in five appearances without giving up an earned run.

Britton got his first decision on July 31, working the 14th and 15th innings of a game tied 4-4 against the visiting Seattle Mariners. Once more, he held the opposition scoreless. He gave up a single in the 14th and two singles in the 15th, but saw left fielder Jonny Gomes execute a rare unassisted double play to close out the inning, catching a line drive to left and then running to the bag at second base to double up Raúl Ibañez, who had taken off on contact. Stephen Drew singled in the winning run for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 15th.

Britton pitched a scoreless eighth against the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 4 as four Red Sox pitchers combined on a 4-0 shutout.

His scoreless streak came to an end in his eighth appearance, in Houston on August 6. He worked 2⅓ innings in the game and the one run he gave up was only one among the 10 runs the Astros scored off Boston pitching, but it was still disappointing to see the streak snapped.

Three days after that, Britton lost his first game, on the road against the Kansas City Royals, charged with two runs in a 9-6 loss.

At the end of August, after 14 appearances, he was 1-1 with an ERA of 3.12.

He worked in four September games and finished the season 1-1 (3.86). He had worked 21 innings and given up 21 hits, only one of them a home run (by Houston’s Jake Elmore in the August 6 game). He’d struck out 17 and only walked seven. It had been his best stint statistically – and it was achieved in the major leagues.

Britton pitched in seven more big-league games and never gave up another earned run. But that didn’t come until September 2014.

In October 2013 the Red Sox won the World Series, their third championship in 10 years. Britton was not named to the postseason roster. He was sent to Fort Myers, the Red Sox’ spring-training headquarters, to work out, to be ready in case he was needed. He came frustratingly close to joining the team. In fact, he got the call – but then was called off. Franklin Morales had gotten hurt. “I get a call from Juan Nieves [the Red Sox pitching coach]. He says, ‘Hey, tomorrow when you get to the field, have all your stuff packed and dress ready to meet us.’ So I’m all jacked up. I come walking in there. I’ve got my suitcase all packed. I’m dressed in my suit. Brandon Snyder was with me. They call us into the office and sit us down and put us on the speakerphone with [Red Sox GM] Ben Cherington. He basically just said, ‘Thanks for your hard work down there, but we’re going to take it from here and you all have a safe trip back home.’”

He returned home and watched the rest of the playoffs on television with his good friend and apartment mate Ryan Pressly, very happy that the Red Sox won but understandably disappointed at not being invited to Boston for the championship parade. The following spring, he was included in the world-championship ring ceremony at Fenway Park, driven up from Pawtucket with a few others who had been on the 2013 team.

Britton spent pretty much the full 2014 season with Pawtucket. He worked in 45 games, all in relief, closing 22 games. In contrast to 2013, when he had struck out more than double the number of batters he had walked, regardless of the level at which he pitched, in 2014 he walked 38 and struck out 37. His ERA for the season at Triple A was 5.86 (the staff ERA was 3.60). It was not an impressive season, but he still did get called up to Boston in early September. (He’d been called up once before, at the beginning of May, but not used.)

The Red Sox, though reigning world champions, were once again in the cellar, last place in the American League East.

Britton worked in seven games, for a total of 6⅔ innings. He did not give up any runs – earned or unearned. He allowed five scattered hits, walked two, and struck out four. With an ERA of 0.00 in 2014, his career ERA became 2.93.

When the Red Sox signed Alexi Ogando in early 2015, they made room by designating Britton for assignment. He was claimed off waivers by the Chicago Cubs on February 4. Why had the Red Sox seemed to lose interest in Britton? It might have been a simple matter of a personality difference with one or two people in the front office. John Farrell had told him he wanted him on the staff.15

Britton pitched the full season in Triple A, for the Iowa Cubs, and had another so-so year in the minors: he was 7-8 (5.08). The Cubs had him start 11 games and relieve in 17 others. A shoulder injury shelved him for a while at the end of the season. Why he performed so much better in the major leagues than in minor-league ball perhaps remains one of those baseball mysteries. The Cubs allowed him to become a free agent that November.

In December Britton signed with the Detroit Tigers organization for 2016 and worked exclusively in relief; in 37 games, he posted a record of 0-3 (4.57) with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. In early August, however, he tested positive for amphetamines and was suspended for 50 games, without pay.16 Needless to say, that put an end to his 2016 and with the suspension due to last well into 2017, he was not attractive as a pickup for any team.

Oddly, one could say he was suspended for taking fewer amphetamines than prescribed for him. “I had a TUE, a temporary therapeutic use exemption. I had a TUE granted by Major League Baseball to take amphetamines. I had two different types of amphetamines. You’re supposed to take the medication exactly as prescribed. That’s the rule by Major League Baseball. I was taking them both and then I realized I was having some problems sleeping, and things like that. I found that one of my medications worked better than the other and so – without consulting the doctor for the Tigers at the time – I chose on my own to stop taking one medication and only take the other one.” Testing showed just the one, and not both. That was the violation.

He pitched the next two years in independent baseball, in the Atlantic League. In 2018 he worked for the Bridgeport Bluefish, relieving in 34 games. He recorded a 4-1 mark with a 3.68 ERA. In 2019 he worked for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, for whom he was 4-6 in 27 games, 14 of them starts. His earned-run average was 6.35.

The wear and tear of pitching caught up with Britton. “I had torn my flexor muscle off the bone in my elbow. I had to have surgery for that. While I was doing the MRIs prior to that surgery, they saw that I had torn my labrum and my rotator cuff was 85 percent torn. 

“So six months after having flexor forearm surgery, I turned around and went back in for full labrum and rotator cuff surgery. I was in the elbow brace and the sling, and the shoulder brace, for a good seven months.”

It was time to find some other ways to earn money to finance a growing family. He had met his future wife, Jacqueline, while living in Boston after the 2014 season. She is a registered nurse who was working at Boston Children’s Hospital at the time, working in the ICU with newborns and small babies. They got married and as of the time of the May 2021 interview had two daughters – Belle, age 4½, and Blake, who had just turned 3. Jacqueline Britton took up work at a med spa, working with Botox, lip filler, and lasers – obviously working with an older clientele.

Drake Britton, while rehabbing from the first of the multiple surgeries, started work with the National Scouting Report at the beginning of 2019. 

“They basically scout for every college baseball program in the country. I’ll go out to a game, or someone will fill out an evaluation form to be evaluated by one of our scouts. If they’re in my area in north Texas or anywhere around me, they’ll be forwarded to me. I’ll go out and evaluate that athlete and get them enrolled with NSR. Once they do that, they’re available to be seen by every college in the country, but to be recruited by the schools that they fit into – for coaches who never would have known about that kid had not National Scouting Report connected them.” The goal is to match the player to a program, to get a good fit.

He also got into coaching youth baseball. His friend Blake Beaven – who had been drafted by the Texas Rangers in the same June 2007 draft as Britton – had become the director of the Dallas Tigers West. Britton helped out Beaven at one tournament and really loved it. Britton now has two showcase baseball teams he coaches, one of 12-year-olds and starting in the spring of 2021 a team of 15-year-olds.

There’s a big part of Britton that still wishes for one more shot. “Some guys, they can feel it when they just don’t have the drive or the passion for it. They might have the stuff for it, but that drive and that passion goes away. It hasn’t left me. I would still like to get back to a place to try to play in at least one more game, pain-free.

“I left so many stones unturned throughout my career. I made some mistakes. Maybe I let immaturity and things like that blind my vision of what I could have done in the game. That drive and that passion is still there.

“Deep down and in all honesty, I think that I have more to give. Whether that means physically playing, or mentally – like how I know the game. … I think that’s why I am successful, and like being a coach, like working with younger athletes.”

It’s something he can convey to other players who are just starting out.

“That’s why I feel good and why I like what I’m doing. I have the opportunity to do all those things with the next wave, the next generation of baseball players. I get the opportunity to speak and work with some damn good ballplayers. I get some fulfillment, a sense of still mattering in this game, by doing what I’m doing.”

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts and Scouting Research Committee.

Notes

1 Author interview with Drake Britton on May 24, 2021. Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotations attributed to Britton come from this interview.

2 Others on the roster included Madison Bumgarner, Freddie Freeman, Yasmani Grandal, Matt Harvey, Jason Heyward, DJ LeMahieu, and Rick Porcello.

3 First-round pick Nick Hagadone got $571,000. Britton got more than sixth-rounder Anthony Rizzo (reported at $325,000). Amalie Benjamin and Gordon Edes, “Disagreement Showed Their Signs of Discontent,” Boston Globe, August 20, 2007: 32.

4 Amalie Benjamin and Gordon Edes, “Disagreement Showed Their Signs of Discontent.”

5 Peter Abraham, “Top 10 Places to Get Better,” Boston Globe, September 10, 2010: C5.

6 Peter Abraham, “Decision Is Due on Ortiz Option,” Boston Globe, November 4, 2010: C7.

7 Peter Abraham, “Mostly, a Year of Seasoning,” Boston Globe, September 9, 2011: C2.

8 Peter Abraham, “A Smart Move by Bailey,” Boston Globe, March 10, 2012: C5. Being placed on the roster protected the Red Sox against having him claimed by another team.

9 Andrew Martin, “Boston Red Sox Prospect Drake Britton Faces Up to One Year in Jail,” USA Today, March 19, 2013. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1574279-boston-red-sox-prospect-drake-britton-faces-up-to-one-year-in-jail. Accessed March 9, 2021.

10 Martin. Because he had refused to take a field sobriety test, he had automatically been arrested. Out on bail, he played through the season, then returned to Florida for a court date and ended up charged with reckless driving. “Just because the charge was reduced to a lesser charge doesn’t mean the judge or anybody took it easy on me. If anything, they made an example out of me.” He was fined and had to do 150 hours of mandatory community service. “They got their point across to me.” Author interview May 24, 2021. It may be of interest to note that Britton forthrightly acknowledged smokeless tobacco use. He wasn’t the only one – David Ortiz, Mike Napoli, and Jonny Gomes were among other users on the team. Britton said, “I know I need to quit. I don’t want to be one of those guys who never quits, dips the rest of my life, and gets cancer.” See Peter Abraham, “Routines Outweighing Disdain, Players Cling to the Tobacco Habit,” Boston Globe, March 7, 2014: A1, 10.

11 Peter Abraham, “Lefthander Thornton Added to Pen,” Boston Globe, July 13, 2013: C5.

12 Peter Abraham, “Lester Is Being Dropped Back,” Boston Globe, July 15, 2013: C3.

13 Alex Wilson, Allen Webster, Steven Wright, Jose de la Torre, and Brandon Workman had been the previous five.

14 Peter Abraham, “Going Up,” Boston Globe, March 30, 2014: F14.

15 Author interview.

16 Chris McCosky, “Tigers Minor Leaguer Britton Suspended 50 Games,” Detroit News, August 2, 2016.