Shane Drohan Continues To Impress During Dominant Season

[Nick John]

At the beginning of the season, there were question marks surrounding left-hander Shane Drohan and how he would bounce back after an injury-plagued 2024. We previously wrote about Drohan’s hot start to the 2025 season and whether he may be back to the pitcher that had made him one of the Red Sox’s top pitching prospects. While there were some issues, he looked to be closer to the pitcher he was in the first half of 2023, and he's continued that hot start into May.

So far on the season, Drohan has appeared in seven games, making six starts in his third stint with Worcester. Through those seven games, he’s thrown 26 2/3 innings, allowing only six earned runs on 17 hits and 11 walks. He’s also managed to strike out 38 batters in that span, helping to keep teams from starting large rallies against him.

Drohan this season has a 3.11 FIP, higher than his 2.03 ERA but still mighty impressive. In fact, FanGraphs has it listed that a 3.20 FIP is excellent, putting Drohan in what would be considered the upper-echelon of Triple-A pitchers. To compare it to Boston’s ace, Garrett Crochet currently has a 2.82 FIP across his first eight starts. And while the level of competition is different, it still shows the dominant season Drohan is having. If Drohan qualified for the International League statistics, his FIP would have him ninth out of all Triple-A pitchers.

His WHIP on the other hand is just as good, sitting at 1.050 on the season. To put it plainly, he’s allowing about one runner per inning pitched on average. This has shown his dominance in limiting the opposing hitters from getting into a groove, Drohan keeping them off base and working quick innings to allow his own team to get right back onto offense.

Pitch-wise, Drohan has been leading with his fastball, having thrown it 32.2% of the time. While it isn’t the fastest pitch, Drohan has seen it’s average speed increase, as it was averaging around 92.6 mph back in early April but is now sitting around 93.2 mph on the season and has even hit 96 mph in a few starts. What may be helping it is how it plays off of his secondary pitches.

Drohan has thrown a slider, cutter, curveball and changeup during the season, and each pitch has been important for his revival. The slider has been his second-most used pitch at 24.3% and has small but sharp break — 4.5-inch horizontal break towards Drohan’s glove side, away from left-handed batters.

His cutter is currently being used just under 20% of the time. His second-fastest pitch at 88.9 mph on average, his cutter may also be his worst pitch this season. While it has a vertical rise of 12.6 inches, it only breaks 0.3 inches horizontally. It hits the zone the most at 55.4%, but everything else is problematic. Batters are chasing it at only 21.6% of the time and it’s being whiffed on at only a 20.6% rate. Meanwhile, the xwOBA allowed on the pitch is .466, showing that when batters are swinging, it’s being hit. One key example is from a recent start from Drohan where he left a cutter out over the middle of the plate and saw it get crushed for a three-run home run. Used mostly to keep batters off-balance by mixing it with his fastball and slider, his cutter needs to be placed near perfectly else it’ll be hit hard.

Surprisingly, it may be his curveball that could be one of his most dangerous pitches. Being thrown only 12.5% of the time, Drohan mixes it in as a means to change eye levels and speeds. Averaging 77.7 mph, it’s his slowest pitch, and it also drops 12 inches while also breaking towards his glove side another 12 inches. Its purpose isn’t to hit the zone often, landing in it just 40.7% of the time, but rather to try and generate whiffs when it is swung at. Despite only being chased 25% of the time, he’s still generating an extremely high whiff rate of 63.2%.

Finally, his changeup has been just as good, as he’s used it 11.8% of the time. The pitch currently averages at 84.4 mph, breaking 14.3 inches away from right-handed batters. Much like the curve, it doesn’t hit the strike zone often, landing in it only 31.4% of the time and being chased just 22.9%. However, when swung at, batters are missing quite often, as he's generated a 40.9% whiff rate with the changeup.

Looking into his metrics also showcases Drohan’s ability to induce soft contact. Through 26 2/3 innings, the average exit velocity off of him sits at 86.6 mph, while batters are only getting hard hits 31% of the time. That’s not to mention that batters are whiffing on 38.9% of his pitches, which is in the 100th percentile in Triple-A.

Drohan still has a few issues to work out. He walks guys at a high percent (10.2%), and his cutter needs work to limit hard contact, but for the most part, Drohan is making amazing strides this season. However, it isn’t the first time he’s put up an amazing start to the season. In 2023, he started the season with Portland on a tear, starting six games and dominating Double-A. He pitched 34 innings and only allowed five runs on 19 hits and nine walks. However, he fell off due to fatigue as the season progressed after his promotion to Worcester. Drohan needs to show that this pitching won’t fall off as the season progresses.

Tying into that, one other issue is that the southpaw has not pitched deep into games. Of his six starts on the season, he’s only gone five innings twice, and he’s never gone past the fifth inning once this season. In his latest start, he only lasted three innings.

Because of his stamina issues, Drohan may be best out of the bullpen as a multi-inning reliever, similar to what Garrett Whitlock is often used as. Pitching only a couple innings also allows him to go all out from the beginning and will limit opponents from getting a read on his secondary offerings multiple times through the order.

Regardless, the Red Sox need all the pitching depth they can develop right now, and whether it’s in the rotation or bullpen, Drohan should be someone to keep an eye on as a potential addition to the Boston roster before the end of the season.

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[moonslav59]

It would be really nice, if this guy got it back together.