5 Red Sox Prospects To Keep An Eye On During The Second Half

[Nick John]

While the Boston Red Sox look to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021, the rest of the organization is looking to continue their development to help contribute to the big league roster. From the minor league perspective, there are several interesting stories for the remainder of the season, especially towards some of the top prospects in the organization. Below, we’re going to look at five prospects that should have interesting second halves.

5) Yoeilin Cespedes

Cespedes entered the season alongside fellow prospect Franklin Arias as an exciting, young prospect who dominated in the Florida Complex League in 2024. After hitting .319/.400/.615 with 10 doubles, a triple, five home runs and 24 RBIs, Cespedes was promoted to Salem in late June but missed the rest of 2024 with a broken hamate bone that he had surgery on.

Cespedes, who is known for impressive bad speed (he has one of the quickest bats in the entire system), has excellent hand-eye coordination and was expected by fans to continue his hitting in Salem in 2025. That hasn’t happened so far. In 71 games at Salem, the right-handed hitter has struggled to a stat line of .214/.266/.349 with 15 doubles, four triples, five home runs and 33 RBIs. He’s also struck out 68 times, 25 times more than his first two years in the system combined.

Despite the low batting average and high strikeouts, Cespedes has shown his plus raw power thanks to his solid exit velocities and hard-hit rates even on balls that haven’t landed for hits. With the way that Carilion Clinic Field’s dimensions are, there is the possibility that if he gets promoted to Greenville before the end of the season, he could showcase more pop thanks in part to his in-game power mostly being to the pull side and Fluor Field being 310 feet out to left.

Despite the rough season (including a July that has seen him hit .104/.157/.146 in 52 plate appearances), there’s a reason the Red Sox gave him the largest bonus in the team’s January 2023 international free agent class. He won’t turn 20 until early September and some prospects take a little longer to develop than others. One who has his offensive potential should come around sooner than later.

4) Mikey Romero

Since being drafted in 2022, it’s been one thing after another with Romero, as he suffered a back injury in the 2022-23 offseason that ended up becoming a stress fracture and made him miss most of 2023. He would also miss time in 2024 rehabbing from the injury and ended up playing in 78 games (a career high), where he hit .271/.312/.509 with 24 doubles, four triples, 16 home runs and 53 RBIs across the Florida Complex League, Greenville and Portland. Now (mostly) healthy in 2025, Romero has showcased the offensive potential that made him a first-round pick in 2022.

In 58 games this season, Romero is hitting .275/.332/.485 with 17 doubles, four triples, eight home runs and 38 RBIs. The infielder has also worked on being more patient at the plate, having walked 19 times, which is a career high since being drafted.

The two big things to pay attention to regarding Romero the rest of the season are whether he can stay healthy, and if he stays with the Red Sox at the trade deadline. Already this season, Romero has missed around a month between May and June due to arm fatigue. This year, he’s looked better and entered the year looking more physical as he filled out his lower half and strengthened his upper body, but now he needs to prove he can play a whole season. Of course, that truly only matters if he fits with the team’s future plans. At the moment, their infield and outfield appear to be set for the future, and with his offensive skills, he might be more useful as a trade piece than as a future major leaguer with the Sox.

3) Miguel Bleis

Bleis is very much the definition of a prospect who may not work out as intended. Having received the highest bonus in the Red Sox January 2021 international free agent class, Bleis flew up prospect charts and rankings as he was viewed as being a possible future star. In his first games stateside, Bleis played in the Florida Complex League in 2022 and appeared in 40 games where he hit .301/.353/.542 with 14 doubles, four triples, five home runs and 27 RBIs. A lower back issue kept him from being promoted that year.

Injuries have been a recurring theme with Bleis, though when he has stayed healthy, he’s showcased the skill that put him as such a highly-ranked prospect. His 2023 season was limited to just 31 games because of a left shoulder subluxation that required surgery and 2024 saw him miss time with several minor injuries. Even 2025 saw him open the season dealing with a quad injury.

Now healthy and on pace to play in the most games in his professional career, Bleis has put up a solid yet mixed season. In 67 games, he’s managed to hit .230/.316/.429 with 12 doubles, a triple, 12 home runs and 40 RBIs. Hi biggest issue has been consistency. After a slow start to the year, Bleis turned it on in May and looked to be possibly returning to the former top-100 prospect he had been viewed as. Unfortunately, in June, he managed just a .220/.312/.415 slash line where he hit four doubles, four home runs and had eight RBIs. While the average was down, Bleis still managed to get on base at a nice rate thanks to ten walks.

July has been more of the same, however, as through his first 11 games, he’s hit .216/.310/.432 with two doubles, two home runs and two RBIs. Still only 21 years old, Bleis has time to showcase the talent that made him a top-100 prospect, but it’s starting to look like he’ll be yet another fast, defensive outfielder who can hit for power but will strike out often.

2) Franklin Arias

Arias entered the Sox system after receiving the second-highest bonus in their 2023 international free agent class thanks in part to his great defense. Since then, he’s only climbed up the prospect rankings due to strong underlying batted ball data and a breakout in the first half of the 2025 season with Salem and Greenville. Arias is expected to become the top prospect in the Sox's farm system upon Roman Anthony’s graduation from prospect status.

To say Arias exploded onto the scene in 2025 wouldn’t be an exaggeration. After hitting .257/.331/.378 with nine doubles, three home runs and 26 RBIs in 36 games in Salem in 2024, Arias showed in 2025 he was more than ready for a promotion. In 19 games in 2025 with Salem, Arias slashed .346/.407/.397 with four doubles and nine RBIs. He was quickly promoted to High-A Greenville, where he continued hitting well up until June, where he slumped for the first time this season. That month, Arias struggled to the tune of a .169/.228/.265 batting line with two doubles, two home runs and ten RBIs. It seems to have been a case of just not having hits fall in, as he only struck out six times in 83 at-bats. July has been slightly better, but still not up to his usual standards, as he’s only hit .233/.298/.349 with five doubles and six RBIs in his first 12 games.

Overall on the season, Arias is hitting .272/.321/.401 with 16 doubles, a triple, four home runs and 35 RBIs in 56 games for Greenville. Not turning 20 until after the season, Arias is the team’s best positional prospect at the moment that isn't on the MLB roster. The remainder of the season for him will be vital, as a late promotion to Double-A is still on the table.

1) Payton Tolle

Tolle has been a welcome surprise for the Red Sox organization, as he looks poised to be their first fully-developed starter they have drafted in quite some time, and likely to become the true number one prospect in the organization following Anthony’s graduation based on various rankings. Just 22 years old, Tolle has made it to Double-A Portland in just his first professional season since being drafted in the second round in 2024.

Armed with a fastball that has seen a jump in velocity (sat 90-91 mph in college) that averages 94-97 mph and tops out around 99 mph, a slider that shows depth and bite down in the zone and a changeup that can have late dive downward and out of the zone, Tolle seems to be destined to be a top-of-the-rotation star if he puts it all together.

And if his 2025 season is anything to go by, Tolle seems to be on that track. After just 11 games at Greenville (10 starts) where he went 1-3 with a 3.62 ERA in 49 2/3 innings with 79 strikeouts, Tolle was promoted to Portland where he has continued to look just as impressive. Having pitched in four games at Double-A, Tolle has made three starts and is 0-1 with a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings. In that span he’s struck out 27 batters and only walked four. What really stands out for Tolle across his entire season has been his ridiculous strikeout rate. At this point in the year, it’s currently sitting at 39.0% and 40.9% since being promoted to Portland.

Add to it that batters are not hitting him well, and there could be a chance he might see Triple-A Worcester by the end of the season. In Portland, opponents are hitting just .164 against him with a .250 batting average on balls in play. Add in a 6.1% walk rate, and he just isn’t dealing with much traffic on the basepaths as he mows down lineups multiple times through the order.  The rest of the season should help to show why Tolle could be the next developed star pitcher for the Red Sox, and it’ll be fun to follow along through the last couple months.

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[TedYazPapiMookie]

Other than Tolle, I honestly don't see any reason to keep an eye on them.  They are either too young or blocked by a better prospect.  Heck, I half expect Bleis and Romero to be DFA'd in the next couple of years due to their lack of progress.  Neither hits me as a MLB level talent.  Arias has some decent trade value because there is no way he gets a shot with Mayer on the roster.  Tolle is of course of huge interest as you suggest and Cespedes is a check back in a year prospect.  I like him but I have no idea where he'll play.

Garcia and the resurrection of Blaze Jordan are interesting players.  Frankly I dismissed Jordan long ago and I'm waiting for another regression but maybe this time it doesn't happen.  Garcia seems like the most talented of the remaining prospects not promoted.  As soon as Campbell gets comfortable with his second new position not counting the outfield brain cramp by Cora, I'm sure his hitting will return and there will be two excellent under-rated hitters in Rafaela and Campbell.  Then if Mayer actually hits consistently without getting hurt this team will be fully loaded on offense for 2026.

Using Abreu and other prospects to land a SP2 at the deadline would be great.

[sk7326]

Keith Law updated Top 60 after the draft: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6502957/2025/07/24/mlb-top-prospects-2025-kevin-mcgonigle/

#9 - Franklin Arias

Quote

Arias continues to make hard contact at high rates in High A, still hitting the ball on the ground a little more than you’d like for his profile (49 percent), with an all-fields approach and very strong pitch recognition, especially breaking balls. He’s only whiffed on 5 percent of fastballs he’s swung at since getting to High A, thanks to elite bat speed, and has a reverse platoon split because he can pick up right-on-right breaking stuff, with worse results against changeups than any other pitch. He’s a true shortstop with great actions and plenty of arm as well. He still has some work to do at the plate to convert his tools into more extra-base power, with All-Star upside as a shortstop who hits for average with 20-ish homer power.

#46 - Password

Quote

The Password moved up to Triple A in late May, and his bat took off as the plus raw power is showing up more in games while he has continued to make contact at a high rate and at least show some command of the strike zone. It’s not 80 power or even 70, but it plays up because his swing gets the ball into that sweet spot of launch angles. He's getting the ball in the air this year, but not too much so, and has put more balls in the seats. He’s mostly played center this year, but it’s going to be right field, even aside from the added challenges of playing center in Fenway. I would pump the brakes a little bit here, even though I obviously think he’s a very promising hitter, as he’s had much worse results on breaking stuff in Triple A, and he has to make more of an adjustment to those pitches before he’s ready for the majors. The Sox have already rushed Marcelo Mayer (whiffing on 46 percent of breaking pitches in the majors) when he had a similar weakness, and I don’t think it’s helped him to come up before he was ready.

#54 - Witherspoon

Quote

Witherspoon was the top right-handed pitcher on my draft board this year, as the uber-athletic Oklahoma pitcher held 95+ deep into games and worked with a five-pitch mix that should end up with at least three above-average weapons. His delivery features an unusual movement after separation where he brings his hand almost straight down, described to me by one evaluator as a “waggle.” It hasn’t inhibited his ability to repeat the delivery or throw strikes. I see at least a mid-rotation starter here, and his athleticism and easy velocity point to the potential for even more.

 

[mvp 78]

Law has been consistently HIGH on Arias. Interesting to read his notes. 

[Nick]

i don't really care much about our position players, other than the high ceiling guys.

If there's not a Mayer or Anthony in the group, I rather just trade them.

I'm only interested in pitching, especially starting pitching. Which means right now only Payton Tolle has any hold on me.

You can get a short term rentals at the positionals.

Hell we have Narvaez, Mayer, Anthony, Rafaela, Duran and Abreu in our 'window' of opportunity for playoff spots. With Crochet's 6 year deal through 2031 and Bello deal that runs through 2030 (club option), I am going with the window of opportunity for 6 years starting 2026. That's 6 positional players out of 9, not withstanding possible extension for Bregman. 

Hell, it shouldn't be that difficult for Bres to build a contender. I will give him a pass for this year but NO MORE. He and Cora should be fired if they don't get into the playoffs in 2026. No excuses.

[Larry Cook]

19 hours ago, Nick said:

i don't really care much about our position players, other than the high ceiling guys.

 

I am more than a bit concerned that our system lacks high end position players prospects at the moment!!!  
Salem and Florida had only 1 high bat between them!!! Two or three years from now and we have very little depth of high end bats to bring up in case of injury or free agency defections 
 

[moonslav59]

On 7/25/2025 at 3:47 PM, Larry Cook said:

I am more than a bit concerned that our system lacks high end position players prospects at the moment!!!  
Salem and Florida had only 1 high bat between them!!! Two or three years from now and we have very little depth of high end bats to bring up in case of injury or free agency defections 
 

There may be a lack of ML ready position players, but not only for good reason (we just graduated 4 or 'em) but we should not need very many for the next few years, because we have young and or controlled players at nearly every position for 3+ years

C: 5+ Narvaez, Wong 3

1B: Casas & Romy 3, Campbell 7+

2B: Mayer 5+, Campbell 5+, DHam & Grissom 4 (Rafaela)

SS: Story 3, Mayer 5+, Romy 3 (Rafaela)

3B: Bregman 1, Mayer 5+, Toro 2

LF: Duran 2, Anthony 5+

CF: Rafaela 6

RF: Abreu 4

DH: Yoshida 2

Garcia replaces Duran in 2 years

Anyone can DH for Yoshida

3B is our only need area for 3 years. We have Romero and Arias coming up in 1-3 years. We can move Story or mayer around to make them fit.

 

[Larry Cook]

I think Justin Gonzales and Kristin Campbell are our only tier 1 position players left in the minor leagues! 
I think arias and Garcia are tier 2. 
 

after that, maybe godbout and Soto surprise us, but no one knows???

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

I think Justin Gonzales and Kristin Campbell are our only tier 1 position players left in the minor leagues! 
I think arias and Garcia are tier 2. 
 

after that, maybe godbout and Soto surprise us, but no one knows???

Arias& Garcia are both a top 100 prospect in the nation.

Do you disagree? Granted Arias did slump for a bit, but seems to be waking up, again. JH Garcia is only getting better by the week.

[moonslav59]

I'd say Romero and maybe Bleis & Cespedes are level 2.

Taylor looks level 2 with #1 potential. Soto is too far away to know much. Godbout should give us better read in the coming few weeks.

[Larry Cook]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Arias& Garcia are both a top 100 prospect in the nation.

Do you disagree? Granted Arias did slump for a bit, but seems to be waking up, again. JH Garcia is only getting better by the week.

I agree, but their upside offensively is much lower than Mayer or Campbell 

[moonslav59]

55 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I agree, but their upside offensively is much lower than Mayer or Campbell 

Arias, yes. Jh Garcia- maybe not.

OPS at Woo in '25

.951 Jh Garcia (He was .748 at POR in less games)

.913 Anthony

.818 Mayer

.816 Campbell

You said you felt Gonzales was upper tier, but not Jh G: why? He's at .758 at 2-3 levels below Password.

Arias is probably already a ML ready plus-plus defensive SS.

Jh Garcia is a good corner OF'er and may be okay in CF, too.

[moonslav59]

Speak of the devil...

Jh Garcia homered and went 2-5 and is up to .961 in AAA. Only 4 players in the INT'l league have a better OPS and more ABs. 

[Larry Cook]

13 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Arias, yes. Jh Garcia- maybe not.

OPS at Woo in '25

.951 Jh Garcia (He was .748 at POR in less games)

.913 Anthony

.818 Mayer

.816 Campbell

You said you felt Gonzales was upper tier, but not Jh G: why? He's at .758 at 2-3 levels below Password.

Arias is probably already a ML ready plus-plus defensive SS.

Jh Garcia is a good corner OF'er and may be okay in CF, too.

I think all 4 are really good. 
Gonzales is only 18 years old and when he is in the batters box, he looks comfortable and he takes really good swings at pitches he should attack!!  I can’t say that about Garcia or arias. &nbsp

arias has a lot of rafeala in him. Sometimes arias swings at pitches a a foot outside the strike zone. And ok, I admit, Gonzales gets fooled occasionally and swings at pitches a four outside the strike zone too! But where Gonzales will lay off the next pitch with that exact same spin a foot outside the strike zone. Arias will swing at it again and again !!! 
 

I watch Garcia at bat and I do not know if he recognizes spin on breaking balls. I wonder what happens when he faces a nasty major league slider or cutter or sweeper!!  He looked completely overwhelmed in spring training. That being said however, throw him a fastball below the letters and look out!!! 
 

Campbell to me is the best pure hitter in the system, but he was rushed through the system and the major league pitches found his weak spot! I have no doubt that he will return smarter and better prepared next time. The problem is he had no defensive position, DH or outfield may work best for him, we have to keep him off the dirt. 

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

I think all 4 are really good. 
Gonzales is only 18 years old and when he is in the batters box, he looks comfortable and he takes really good swings at pitches he should attack!!  I can’t say that about Garcia or arias. &nbsp

arias has a lot of rafeala in him. Sometimes arias swings at pitches a a foot outside the strike zone. And ok, I admit, Gonzales gets fooled occasionally and swings at pitches a four outside the strike zone too! But where Gonzales will lay off the next pitch with that exact same spin a foot outside the strike zone. Arias will swing at it again and again !!! 
 

I watch Garcia at bat and I do not know if he recognizes spin on breaking balls. I wonder what happens when he faces a nasty major league slider or cutter or sweeper!!  He looked completely overwhelmed in spring training. That being said however, throw him a fastball below the letters and look out!!! 
 

Campbell to me is the best pure hitter in the system, but he was rushed through the system and the major league pitches found his weak spot! I have no doubt that he will return smarter and better prepared next time. The problem is he had no defensive position, DH or outfield may work best for him, we have to keep him off the dirt. 

Good summaries.

Certainly, our everyday player prospects look worse than before, but when you just graduated Anthony, Mayer, Narvaez and actually Campbell, too, it's pretty hard to stay even.

3-4 very nice everyday prospects is not enough, but my contention is, we should not really need many more ML ready prospects for the next 2-4 years. I know that statement could come back to haunt me, but our 26 and 40 man roster is loaded with young and cost-controlled players with 3+ years of team control.

We look weak and shallow at 1B, but we are not without hope there. Casas showed he's a damn good hitter, when healthy, and may be our next FT DH, another position that could be viewed as weak, despite our 4 OF'er conundrum. We also have Campbell and may convert JH Garcia or Gonzales to 1B, soon. 2B has been a weak area for over 6 years, and Mayer's injury issues and possible  need at 3B, if Bregman bolts keeps it an area of need. Campbell does not look like our 2B solution, and neither does Grissom or DHam (not prospects.) Romy may just be a platoon solution at 1B or 2B, but maybe he can become a decent batter vs RHPs, someday. (he's at .737 v R in 2026.) 3B could be an issue, if Mayer stays hurt, all the time. Romero offers some hope at 3B or 2B, and if Arias proves to be a MLB SS, we've added Story as a 2B option, and Mayer as not needed at SS and added playing time hopes at 3B or 2B.

Catcher is always a position of need at depth. Just about every team wishes they had more depth. Narvaez looks like one of the best young catchers in MLB, so we likely just need depth for our #2 catcher. I, for one, am fine with Wong as our #2, and he has 3 years of control left. I'm also higher on Jo Garcia than most, and we do still have a couple other catcher prospect hopefuls in the system. OF is more than set. We can afford to trade 1-2 OF'ers and still be fine.

The immense prospect pitching depth, even if not many are top ranked, allows us the flexibility to make trades that include a mid level ranked pitcher to sweeten the returns.

 

[Larry Cook]

I feel pretty good that we got some quality prospects in the system despite a lot of graduations in the past few years!  
 

we got some exciting pitchers that will debut in 2026!!!  
 

the system has to keep graduating quality prospects year after year!!!

[mvp 78]

On 8/8/2025 at 5:42 PM, moonslav59 said:

Arias& Garcia are both a top 100 prospect in the nation.

Do you disagree? Granted Arias did slump for a bit, but seems to be waking up, again. JH Garcia is only getting better by the week.

Arias ended up with a 817 OPS for August. He had a bad June and July, but has turned it around. 

[moonslav59]

56 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Arias ended up with a 817 OPS for August. He had a bad June and July, but has turned it around. 

Very encouraging.

His glove alone will likely get him to the bigs as a SS, but if he can hit over .700, he'll be a keeper.

[mvp 78]

Also, I haven't heard much mention of Henry Godbout, but he had a 1053 OPS before ending the season due to injury. My guess is he'll start next season in GVL again, but he seemed to not struggle too much there so far. 

[Larry Cook]

On 9/2/2025 at 11:23 AM, mvp 78 said:

Also, I haven't heard much mention of Henry Godbout, but he had a 1053 OPS before ending the season due to injury. My guess is he'll start next season in GVL again, but he seemed to not struggle too much there so far. 

As a former college bat, his challenge should be at Portland! Although this last season was not a great one for him in college 

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, Larry Cook said:

As a former college bat, his challenge should be at Portland! Although this last season was not a great one for him in college 

I believe they tried tweaking his swing his junior year. 

[Larry Cook]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

I believe they tried tweaking his swing his junior year. 

Wow!!  That would explain why his numbers fell off a cliff his last season