What Hunter Dobbins said of report he made false claims about dad’s playing career with Yankees

"At the end of the day, I don’t go fact-check my dad or anything like that.”

Hunter Dobbins helped the Red Sox beat the Yankees on Sunday. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

June 12, 2025

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Hunter Dobbins has only appeared in 10 games in his major-league career.

But the Red Sox rookie has already found a way to entrench himself in the century-long rivalry between Boston and the New York Yankees over the last week.

Before his start against the Yankees on Sunday, Dobbins, 25, told the Boston Herald that he would retire before playing for New York. Beyond that clear disdain for the Yankees, Dobbins told the Herald that his father, Lance, was drafted twice by New York before later being traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

When asked if he had a least favorite Yankees player, Hunter Dobbins singled out one player who seemingly had ties to his father.

“Can I say all of them but Andy Pettitte? Andy Pettitte and my dad were really good friends,” Dobbins told the Herald.

But a story from The New York Post’s Joel Sherman alleges that Dobbins made “false claims” about his father’s pro career and his relationship with Pettitte.

“Dobbins’ father, Lance, does not come up as a Yankee draft pick in any search of the team’s selections on Baseball Reference from any single season,” Sherman wrote in his story. “Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who has been with the organization since the late 1980s, has no recollection of the Yankees drafting Lance Dobbins and said a check with the Yankees amateur department revealed no drafting of a Lance Dobbins.

“When contacted by The Post, both Joe Garagiola Jr., who was the Diamondbacks original general manager, and Buck Showalter, who was the original manager in waiting, said they had no memory of a Lance Dobbins, or of making a trade with the Yankees for a Lance Dobbins.”

Pettitte was also contacted by The New York Post for the story, with the longtime Yankees southpaw adding that he “nor anyone he asked in his family remember” Lance Dobbins.

Speaking ahead of Boston’s eventual 4-3 win over the Rays on Wednesday night, Dobbins addressed the story from The New York Post.

“The whole back story, it was stuff that I had heard growing up and seen pictures of, from my dad,” Dobbins said. “At the end of the day, it’s just from my dad and what I kind of grew my love for the game. At the end of the day, I don’t go fact-check my dad or anything like that.”

Hunter Dobbins isn't too concerned about a New York Post article 🤷‍♂️

"Doesn't faze me … my focus is [on] performing for the guys here in the locker room, for the fans." pic.twitter.com/TWzqOQktaN
— NESN (@NESN) June 11, 2025

Dobbins, who sports a 4.20 ERA across his 10 appearances with the Red Sox, said he is not focusing all that much effort into discussing the story with his father.

“A little bit, not really,” Dobbins said. “My whole focus is on Saturday, getting ready to face the Yankees. This is my first time in the big leagues facing a team a second time, let alone back-to-back. So that’s where my focus is, 100 percent. I imagine we’ll talk in the future or something like that. It’s been a bigger deal than it really needed to be.”

Dobbins will find himself right back into the headlines this weekend with his second start against the Yankees — this time at Fenway Park. Dobbins was solid in Boston’s 11-7 win against New York at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, giving up three runs over five innings of work.

Amid all of the discourse surrounding his initial comments about New York and the subsequent story from The New York Post, Dobbins stressed that the recent reporting from New York isn’t weighing on him.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Dobbins said. “I love working with the media and everybody here. Everybody’s been great. So my focus is performing for the guys here in the locker room, for the fans of Boston, even y’all. Something that’s a few hours away doesn’t faze me.”