​MIAMI — When Red Sox rookie Alec Gamboa signed with the Lotte Giants of the KBO League on May 14, 2025, the club told him he needed to be in South Korea within a week.The only issue: The left-hander didn’t have a passport.“I’d never left the country before,” Gamboa said.At the time, Gamboa was pitching for Oklahoma City, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Lotte signed him to replace injured starting pitcher Charlie Barnes on its roster.“I didn’t really know what to do,” Gamboa said. “I found out you can get your passport in a day.”Gamboa got the passport in time and headed to South Korea to gain more exposure and pitch well enough to pique the interest of MLB teams.It worked.He made an immediate impact for Lotte, winning KBO Player of the Month for June 2025. That earned him a bonus and a plaque.“My dad has it,” he said about the plaque.More importantly, the Red Sox and other teams were impressed while he recorded a 3.58 ERA and 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings in 19 starts.In December 2025, he signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox that included a May 1 opt-out clause, allowing him to seek interest from other teams. When his camp found a team interested in signing him to a big league roster, the Red Sox protected Gamboa by adding him to their 40-man roster.Gamboa made his MLB debut at 29 years old on May 5 at Detroit against the Tigers, throwing a perfect inning and striking out two.He has a 1.31 ERA, allowing just three earned runs in 20 ⅔ innings across 12 outings for Boston. He’s held opponents to a .197 batting average.There were certainly times he felt like pitching in the majors would never happen.“A lot of times,” Gamboa said. “When I was in Triple A for about three years, it was just like, ‘Is this going to happen? The new start in Korea, that’s why I took it, because I don’t know what was going to happen.” Gamboa was very emotional in the dugout and when speaking with the media after his MLB debut. His parents, who were in the stands, were as well.“Being able to come back to the States and get this opportunity, it’s been surreal and it’s been awesome,” Gamboa said.A challenging journey to MLBHis journey here was a lengthy one that included many challenges beginning in college. He did not meet academic requirements at Division I Fresno State, forcing him to transfer to Fresno City College, a junior college about 10 minutes away.“I made some mistakes while I was there,” he said. “So ultimately lost my scholarship.”Gamboa is from Madera, Calif., near Fresno. In 2017, The Fresno Bee detailed his academic issues that caused the scholarship to be revoked.Gamboa then underwent Tommy John surgery while he was in junior college. Then came years of trying to prove himself in the minors after the Dodgers drafted him in the ninth round (281st overall) and signed him for $17,500.The player picked 280th overall received a $275,000 bonus while the player selected 282nd received $250,000