Red Sox ready to see pitching pipeline start to flow through farm system

Boston Globe

14-03-2025

The stuff evident from pitchers across the system this spring suggests that the team's pipeline is starting to fill. The electric arsenals of pitchers in early spring have looked unlike anything in the Red Sox system in years.
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Among the eye-opening glimpses:
⋅ Connelly Early, a lefthander who said his fastball averaged '90 on the dot' as a junior at the University of Virginia in 2023 before the Red Sox took him in the fifth round, regularly touched 96-97 m.p.h. in live batting practice sessions with a far-reaching mix that he can use all over the strike zone.
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He has emerged as the pitching parallel to fellow 2023 draftee Kristian Campbell,
'He's the goal crusher,' said Sox director of pitching Justin Willard. 'Literally, every time you set a new benchmark for him, he's like, 'OK, cool, I got that one.' And then you move it again.'
⋅
'It's different, funky, maybe unique,' said Tolle.
⋅
'He's been incredible,' said Willard.
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Juan Valera limited batters to a .125 average last year in 18 appearances in rookie ball and Single A Salem.
Brent Butler/Salem Red Sox
⋅ While
'He can make the ball do anything he wants,' said former American League Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, who worked out with Sandlin in Fort Myers last year and over the offseason in Oklahoma.
⋅ Lefthander Brandon Clarke, a 2024 fifth-rounder, sat at 97-99 m.p.h. and touched 101 in live batting practice.
'He's fully bought in on, 'Hey, I need to throw it over the white thing in the air and really attack hitters with my elite stuff,' ' said Willard.
That incomplete list of head-turning developments this spring highlights the efforts of the organization to shed its reputation as one that struggles to develop pitching.
The presence of homegrown starters Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, and Kutter Crawford in the rotation last year represented a starting point in that effort. But the goal for the Sox is to make that trio a starting point rather than an island, and the team feels it's made meaningful strides in turning pitching into a renewable resource in their organization.
'There are just a lot of dopamine hits for everybody [this spring], like, 'Yeah, let's go. This is exciting. Guys are getting better,' ' said Willard. 'The group has kind of really progressed forward. I would say the average player this year is exponentially better than the average player last year, and I thought the average player last year was pretty good. So it's really cool to see and be part of.'
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The coalescing talent reflects some of the purposeful changes that occurred following the hiring of chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, formerly the Cubs' director of pitching, last offseason.
The Sox were already in the middle of overhauling some of their offseason training for pitchers (the 2023-24 offseason was the first in which the team offered year-round instruction for dozens of prospects in Fort Myers).
Two of Breslow's first hires – pitching coach Andrew Bailey and Willard – reflected the organization's effort to push its pitching program forward, with a general emphasis on adding big pitchers with big stuff. The team leaned into the notion of its ability to develop certain traits such as velocity through structured training, and based on that belief, loaded up on pitching in the draft.
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The Sox took Tolle in the second round, making him their
'We were sitting in the locker room with the front office guys who'd just drafted us. We were talking and were like, 'Did we draft a basketball team or baseball team?' ' said Clarke. 'Pretty much all the pitchers we'd gotten were 6-foot-4 plus, a bunch of big guys with pretty good stuff and a lot of projectability.'
That towering draft class will represent a fascinating first marker of the Sox' ability to develop pitchers in the coming years.
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The Sox only sent two of the 14 pitchers out to affiliates to make their pro debuts last summer. They kept the other 12 drafted pitchers in Fort Myers through the remainder of the minor league season to get on a professional strength and conditioning program and to introduce them to educate them in the team's approach to training.
'We let them build a foundation for the offseason, which is even more important [than the first pro summer],' said farm director Brian Abraham.
Most of the pitchers remained in Fort Myers for the vast majority of the offseason, getting stronger, following velocity training programs, and adding other goals such as refining pitch shapes or command.
It will take time to discern the sort of impact the current group of Red Sox pitchers have on the big league team. For now, the most promising pitchers in the minors have not yet positioned themselves as the first line of big league depth.
There is more promise than polish, explaining why most of the team's top pitching prospects will start the year in Double A or below, while the team's three top big league depth starters — Richard Fitts (trade), Quinn Priester (trade), and Cooper Criswell (free agent) — all arrived from outside the organization.
Quinn Priester made one appearance for the Red Sox last season after being acquired in a trade with the Pirates.
Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
But at the least, the Red Sox' backfields look completely different than they have in recent years, with high-octane stuff evident nearly everywhere — a fact that will likely be ratified frequently with a specific form of apparel.
Last year, Willard estimates that he gave out five or six of the prized 'I throw fuego' T-shirts to members of the organization, and none to big leaguers. This year, the club expects to double or triple that distribution.
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'They'll be handing them out left and right like candy,' Abraham grinned.
But the organization is believes that this year will yield more than a growing number of pitchers who reach triple digits.
'My hope is that it's going to be an organization that has been able to develop players versus just position players. I think we have a lot of young arms that are really exciting, that are starting to reach the upper levels,' said Abraham. 'I think there's some really interesting arms that, I think, have a chance to make an impact in the rotation and in the big leagues, more so than we've had the past.'
Alex Speier can be reached at