BOSTON — Red Sox newcomer Hunter Dobbins stirred up some buzz before his debut against the Yankees when he declared he would prefer retiring over pitching for New York.
He is now addressing the controversy spawned by a report suggesting that his previous assertions about his father’s stint in the Yankees’ minor league system were false. Dobbins clarified on Wednesday that the supposed ties between his father and the Yankees aren’t as deceitful as the report portrayed.
“My views and feelings are rooted in my personal experiences, unrelated to my upbringing or family,” Dobbins remarked. “The whole background story is simply something I absorbed while growing up and from seeing pictures shared by my dad. Ultimately, it’s just my dad’s influence that nurtured my love for baseball. But truthfully, I never felt the need to fact-check my father’s stories.”
A Boston Herald article published on June 7, a day before Dobbins yielded three runs and four hits over five innings in an 11-7 victory against the Yankees, highlighted he had said his father, Lance Dobbins, was twice drafted by the Yankees and subsequently traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The article also noted that his father supposedly had a friendship with Andy Pettitte, who spent 15 seasons in the major leagues with New York.
However, the report found no corroborating evidence for these claims after reviewing several official databases and Yankees’ documentation, which couldn’t verify Lance Dobbins’s affiliation with the team. Even his profile on Baseball-Reference.com doesn’t indicate any Yankees connection. The 2025 Red Sox Media Guide mentions Lance on Hunter Dobbins’ biography page, but it solely states that Lance “pitched for two seasons (1996-97) in the Diamondbacks organization.”
Hunter Dobbins, who is lined up to pitch against the Yankees once again this Saturday at Fenway Park, mentioned that any conversation with his father regarding the discrepancies mentioned in the report has been minimal. “My main priority is preparing for Saturday and focusing on facing the Yankees. This is my inaugural experience in the major leagues of facing a team consecutively, making it my primary concern. I suspect that we’ll discuss it later; however, it’s been sensationalized unnecessarily. Right now, my priority is to be ready for Saturday.”
The rookie, boasting a 3-1 record with a 4.20 ERA this season, acknowledges the level of intrigue generated by this story. “This is a significant rivalry,” Dobbins expressed. “Two cities with a rich intertwined history. Any news involving these teams is bound to catch attention and morph into a story. It adds excitement to the game, and we must embrace it and push forward.”