Earlier this week, Ryan Zeferjahn became the first notable Red Sox prospect to earn an in-season promotion this year, moving from Double-A Portland to Triple-A Worcester after an utterly dominant start to the season.
The hard-throwing right-hander, whose fastball is up to 101 mph, has looked like a completely different pitcher and drawn wide praise from within the organization for his dramatic improvement in consistency and strike-throwing.
But while Zeferjahn was the first, he certainly won’t be the last; several Red Sox prospects should be pushing their way up the ladder in the coming months. The most intriguing candidate for a promotion is undoubtedly their No. 1 prospect, Marcelo Mayer, who’s put last season’s injury-plagued campaign behind him and gotten off to a strong start at Portland.
The shortstop, 21, opened the season with a 10-game hit streak while batting .329 through his first 16 games. He endured a rough series last week in Reading — going 4 for 25 (.160) over six games, albeit with three doubles and six RBI — but has gotten back on track this week in Binghamton, hitting his third home run of the year Wednesday.
Peaks and valleys like that will inevitably come over the course of a long season, but most encouraging for the No. 4 overall pick in the ’21 draft is the power and bat speed that was lacking for much of last summer is back.
“Marcelo obviously fought through the shoulder, you saw the bat path and whether you want to talk bat path or bat speed, it was lacking with the injury, and you’re seeing it now,” said Portland Sea Dogs manager Chad Epperson prior to the team’s April 25 game in Hartford. “He’s just in a good spot overall, defense, running the bases, at the plate.”
“He has high expectations for himself and as long as he’s working towards the goals we’ve laid out for him and the goals he has for himself, he’s going to have a lot of success,” Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham said that same day. “But it’s good to see that play out on the field, hitting the ball hard, playing strong defense, subjectively with the eyes and objectively with some of the numbers we have behind the scenes he’s playing incredibly well and he’s going to continue to progress.”
At this point in the season, promotions are typically reserved for players who have proven completely undeniable at their current level, and Mayer hasn’t performed to that level just yet. So when exactly will the Red Sox know that Mayer, or other top prospects such as Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel, and Nick Yorke, are ready for Worcester?
In general, Abraham said they want to see consistency, hard-hit balls, good at-bats and strong defense, but they also have individual goals for each player and need to be mindful of the bigger picture when it comes to the minor league organization as a whole.
“There’s a lot that goes into promotions,” Abraham said. “It’s making sure that these guys are getting priority at-bats, being able to work on the things they need to work on so they can improve at the major league level. So I think continuing to improve every day, being even-keeled, staying where their feet are, and being able to perform where they are, and when the opportunity arises they’ll get that shot and I know they’ll be able to produce.”
Right now, the biggest impediment to a possible Mayer promotion might be Worcester’s jam-packed infield situation. The WooSox feature Chase Meidroth, Nick Sogard, Eddy Alvarez, Jamie Westbrook, Niko Kavadas and now also Enmanuel Valdez, Pablo Reyes, and Bobby Dalbec, each of whom had been big-league regulars until recently. WooSox manager Chad Tracy is already working overtime trying to find at-bats for everyone, so adding Mayer to the mix probably wouldn’t be ideal, at least not at this stage of the season.
But as Zeferjahn showed, if you prove you deserve a promotion, the Red Sox won’t hesitate to grant one. When Mayer is ready, they’ll make room at Triple-A. His performance in the next month could go a long way towards determining how soon that could eventually happen.
Triple-A: Fitts standing out
As one of the top pitching prospects brought into the organization this past offseason, Richard Fitts has lived up to the hype in his first season with the Red Sox. After earning a promotion to Triple-A out of spring training, the Red Sox No. 10 prospect has posted a 3.72 ERA over 29 innings through his first six starts. He’s struck out 28 while issuing eight walks, and held opposing batters to a .255 average. He recently enjoyed his best start of the season, striking out seven over six innings while at one point retiring 17 consecutive Lehigh Valley batters on April 30.
Grant Gambrell, one of the prospects acquired in the Andrew Benintendi trade, has reached Triple-A as well and leads the WooSox with 37 innings pitched through his seven starts. He owns a 4.62 ERA and struck out nine batters on April 24. Reliever Luis Guerrero (No. 30) has continued to impress, posting a 2.08 ERA over his first nine appearances while holding opposing batters to just a .150 average. He’s struck out 17 in 13 innings while allowing only seven hits.
Chase Meidroth (No. 17) has enjoyed a successful transition to Triple-A; the 22-year-old infielder has tallied more than twice as many walks (27) as strikeouts (13) while batting .268 with a .795 OPS. Catcher Nathan Hickey (No. 16) ranks among the WooSox leaders in hits (24) while batting .226 with a .708 OPS, three home runs and 17 RBI, and first baseman Niko Kavadas has gotten off to a monster start, batting .296 with a team-high seven home runs and a 1.107 OPS.
Double-A: Talent cup runneth over
Double-A is teeming with top prospects, a good problem to have.
Boston’s new ‘Big Three,’ Mayer, Anthony, Teel are excelling in Portland. Anthony, 19, is on track to be the youngest Red Sox player to make his big-league debut since a 20-year-old Xander Bogaerts in 2013. Through 26 games, he’s collected 23 hits, six doubles, a triple, two home runs, and a whopping 17 walks to lead the roster and even out his 36 strikeouts.
Teel was Boston’s first-round pick just last summer and was already in Double-A by the end of the season. The most decorated catcher in University of Virginia history had a hot-and-cold April, highlighted by a three-hit performance in his third game of the year and four three-strikeout games throughout the month. May is off to a stronger start: through six games, Teel has seven hits, including three doubles and a home run. The left-handed hitter is tormenting lefties to the tune of .308/.357/.500.
And the organization’s top three prospects are far from the only Sea Dogs to watch. Matthew Lugo has already hit a team-leading seven home runs; Mayer, Teel, Yorke, and Eddinson Paulino are tied for second with three apiece. Blaze Jordan owns a 16-game hitting streak. Mickey Gasper has drawn 16 walks and only struck out 12 times.
On the mound, Hunter Dobbins leads the roster with 26 innings, over which he owns an impressive 2.42 ERA. The 24-year-old has allowed seven earned runs, but has yet to give up a round-tripper. Helcris Olivarez has posted a minuscule 1.40 ERA over 19.1 innings in his five outings (four starts), though he’s walked 24 batters to his 22 strikeouts. After giving up seven earned runs over his first two games of the season, Wikelman Gonzalez appears to be settling in; he’s allowed no more than two earned runs or one walk in his subsequent three games, and is coming off back-to-back starts of five innings and eight strikeouts.
High-A: Perales back on track
Luis Perales, one of two pitching prospects added to the 40-man roster last winter, was sidelined for about two weeks in April due to side soreness but has since gotten back on the mound. The 21-year-old right-hander has been terrific in his last two outings, striking out seven batters over four innings without allowing an earned run each time out. Perales (No. 9) boasts a 3.46 ERA with 21 strikeouts over 13 innings through his first four starts.
David Sandlin (No. 14), the 23-year-old righty acquired from the Royals in exchange for John Schreiber this spring, has been similarly overpowering, though not always with as good results. Sandlin has struck out 21 over 15.2 innings, but has also posted a 5.17 ERA through four starts. Hayden Mullins, a 12th-round pick out of Auburn in 2022, has been Greenville’s most impressive arm overall, striking out 25 over 20 innings with a 3.15 ERA through five starts.
Kristian Campbell, a fourth-round pick in last summer’s draft, has gotten off to a fantastic start in his first full season as a pro. The infielder is batting .271 with four home runs and a .907 OPS and last week enjoyed an especially dominant performance against Asheville, going 10 for 20 with five extra-base hits in five games.
Outfielder Allan Castro (No. 12) is batting .238 but has a team-high .388 on-base percentage boosted by his 19 walks in 23 games. Shortstop Mikey Romero (No. 11), Boston’s first-round pick in 2022, made his debut on Tuesday in the Florida Complex League as he continues to rehab the back injury that derailed his 2023 season. Romero is expected to join Greenville in the near future and likely spend the bulk of the season at High-A.
Low-A: Garcia to undergo season-ending surgery
After being taken off the field last week with what Brian Abraham described to reporters as a “significant” knee injury, Johanfran Garcia will undergo season-ending surgery. It’s a crushing blow for the 19-year-old catching prospect, who was off to an enormous start; over 14 games, he went 20-for-52 (.385) with five doubles, two homers, five runs, five batted in, six walks, and 15 strikeouts.
Nazzan Zanetello, Boston’s second-round pick last summer, was also off to a hot start before landing on the seven-day injured list with a hamstring ailment earlier this week. The infielder, who turns 19 on May 25, led off his last game with a 428-foot first-pitch home run, one of two he’s hit in his six games.
Shoulder subluxation surgery ended Miguel Bleis’ 2023 campaign after 31 games, but he’s back to showing off his own power potential. Through 24 games, the outfielder, 20, has collected 22 hits, including seven doubles, a triple, and a home run. The organization’s No. 4 prospect still has a lot to figure out, as evidenced by his 9-for-15 stolen-base mark, but has shown improvement with swing decisions, drawing 11 walks to his 20 strikeouts.
Right-hander Jedixson Paez is off to a strong start, or rather four starts; over 19 innings, he owns a 2.37 ERA with 24 strikeouts and he’s yet to give up a home run. In his first start of the month, he blanked Myrtle Beach for five innings, holding the Pelicans to four hits, zero walks, and seven strikeouts.
Another notable arm to watch is Danny Kirwin, a newcomer to the organization. He went undrafted last year – despite posting a 2.32 ERA and striking out 67 batters over 50.1 innings at Rider University and earning Third Team All-American honors in 2023 – but the Sox signed him to a minor-league deal at the end of April after seeing a video his Pioneer League manager posted on X (formerly Twitter) of him hitting 98 mph on the radar gun. He’s already made three long-relief appearances for Salem, including a pair of back-to-back scoreless outings, the first being three perfect innings with a trio of strikeouts on May 3.
