2026 Prospects

[moonslav59]

Perhaps calling Ziehl up over Paez could've been better...

6.2 IP 4 1ER 0BB 4K

Romy continues doing well at WOO (2-5 w dinger). Romero woke up and went 4-4. Arias 2-4 w BB

Godbout omered in POR's loss.

GRE won 13-11 as YRod homered, had two 2Bs and a BB. Schaffner homered (2-6) and others did well.

SAL scored 2 in the 10th to win 8-7. Shelar went 2-5

[moonslav59]

Some numbers from promoted players:

Arias .994 AA>> .828 AAA (Decent)

Gonzales .854 A+> .988 AA (WOW!)

Primera: 1.267 FCL>> .957 A- (Nice!)

Godbout .851 A-> .902 A+ > .779 AA (Good)

Tucker .874 A->.590 A+> 1.387 AA (SSS)

Cespedes .786 A+>.527 AA (Ummm...)

Winnay .892 A+> .804 AA (Good)

M White .886 A+> .667 AA (TBD)

Heyman .803 A-> .813 A+ (Good)

A Guzman .853 A- >.734 A+ (Okay)

Zanetello 1.305 FCL> .810 A+ (good)

M Martin 1.142 FCL> .605 A+ (TBD)

Andujar 1.214 FCL> .777 A- (TBD)

and how about Azocar?

.875 A- > .885 A+ > .986 BAL A+

 

[mvp 78]

On 8/30/2026 at 12:28 AM, moonslav59 said:

Justin Gonzales is raking at AA ball! He may jump the rankings this winter. 4 for 6 (1.260)

Jo GARCIA DID BETTER! 3-5 w 2 HRs a BB and 6 rbi. He's been impressive with the bat this year. .829 with 16 HRs. POR won 14-3.

Considering the offensive numbers in A-, A and AA, Baseball America has posited that those leagues are using juiced baseballs. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The pitching numbers at the low levels have been disgusting this year.

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Considering the offensive numbers in A-, A and AA, Baseball America has posited that those leagues are using juiced baseballs. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. The pitching numbers at the low levels have been disgusting this year.

Gotta agree.

The pitching at higher levels have not been eye-opening, except for the guy we traded away- Eyanson.

The OPS Against leaders of our remaining farm arms:

65+ IP

.623 Gilman (A->A+)

.625 Brown (A->A+)

.641 Mullins (AA>AAA) MLB RP'er, at best

.687 Mayers (A->A+)

.699 Wehunt (AA>AAA) Might be our best near future hope.

.699 Futrell (A->A+>AA)

Considering "juiced balls," maybe these numbers are better than they appear.

50-64 IP

.465 B Morgan A->A+

.524 Delzine FCL>A-

.571 E Walker FCL>A-

.594 Ed Rivera AA>AAA> IL

.657 Paez AA>AAA

.674 Tygart FCL>A->A+

.692 Wm Rodriguez A-

Nobody jumps out, except Delzine, who is years away from knowing more.

Valera is on the IL and might be our best bet. Phillips has not impressed. Monegro & I Coffey? Meh.

When Holobetz, Wehunt and Phillips are your 2-3-4 ranked pitchers, it's not looking too good. Lucky we have 14 decent pitchers locked up for 2+ seasons.

Bastardo (RP) Paez and Ed, Rivera are the 5-6-7 ranked farm pitchers. Then...

Mullins, Brown & Monegro

LaFavor, Ziehl & Finley

Morgan, Cason & Mayers

Montero, Futrell & B Ortiz

Jakson Gamboa, Rogers & Gilman are near 60th on soxprospects,com.

[moonslav59]

I don't see a major roster crunch, this winter, unless we add 3-5 new players without trading any 40 man guys to get them.

I think we'll add Brannon and maybe Jo Garcia and or Wehunt to protect from Rule 5, but that may be it. Some Rule 5 eligible players might eb traded or left exposed and lost.

Mikey Romero, Ronny Hernandez, Noah Song, Nate Baez, Miguel Bleis and Braiden Ward (Nathan Hickey? Nope.)

I happen to think Arias will be added to the 40, when ready for the 26 and that may be before opening day, but perhaps we wait until we place someone on the 60 Day IL.

The ETAs listed on soxprospects,com may not be that accurate, but here are some that are near MLB ready (although maybe not good enough)

2027: 1 Arias, 9 Holobetz, 10 Wehunt, 18 Ed. Rivera ('26), 21 Romero (trade?) 22 Mullins, 30 Castro (trade?) 31 Ziehl

early to mid 2028: 2 Gonzales, 4 Godbout, 13 Cespedes, 16 Bastardo, 20 Winnay, 24 M White, 27 Monegro, 34 Brannon, 35 Jo Garcia, 36 I Jackson, 47 Futrell- maybe #6 Schaffner & #8 Owen Hull or #19 C Gutierrez

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see a major roster crunch, this winter, unless we add 3-5 new players without trading any 40 man guys to get them.

I think we'll add Brannon and maybe Jo Garcia and or Wehunt to protect from Rule 5, but that may be it. Some Rule 5 eligible players might eb traded or left exposed and lost.

If there is a lockout on Dec 1, there is no Rule 5 Draft. 

[moonslav59]

12 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If there is a lockout on Dec 1, there is no Rule 5 Draft. 

People seem so sure of a lock-out.

I suppose there could be one, and even if it doesn't it could effect things like the R5 draft.

No biggie.

 

 

 

[moonslav59]

Wehunt pitched well. Could he be added and promoted? Romy are 4-5, Romero 3-5 and Arias 2-5 in a game delayed and tied 3-3 in the 10th.

POR won 5-4 as Brannon (21 and .938) and Godbout (.867) homered, The Sea Dogs faced Eyanson, who did well.

Ronny Hernandez homered, and GRE is 3-3 in the 7th.

SAL lost 1-0 as Tolbert and Judice pitched well. Primera went 2-4 (.948)

 

[moonslav59]

Brez has done a lot to improve the pitching on the Sox, but right now, the farm is way out of balance with the offense having a commanding lead in promising players.

1 Arias, 2 Gonzales, 3 Primera, 4 Godbout, 6 Schaffner, 8 Hull, who may jump in the next rankings. 12 Mataczynski, 14 Shelar & 15 Soto are just getting started. Countin #13 Cespedes, there are 9 bats in the top 15.

Some of the top ranked pitchers may be over-ranked.

5 Valera could be for real but had major surgery.

7 Delzine is 18. 

9 Holobetz, 10 Wehunt, 11 Phillips and others don't impress me.

[Hugh2]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Brez has done a lot to improve the pitching on the Sox, but right now, the farm is way out of balance with the offense having a commanding lead in promising players.

1 Arias, 2 Gonzales, 3 Primera, 4 Godbout, 6 Schaffner, 8 Hull, who may jump in the next rankings. 12 Mataczynski, 14 Shelar & 15 Soto are just getting started. Countin #13 Cespedes, there are 9 bats in the top 15.

Some of the top ranked pitchers may be over-ranked.

5 Valera could be for real but had major surgery.

7 Delzine is 18. 

9 Holobetz, 10 Wehunt, 11 Phillips and others don't impress me.

I'm not as worried about the lack of pitching as I've been in years past.  In the past we didn't have pitching because we couldn't draft or develop it.  This year the team is littered with pitchers we've either developed or pitchers/hitters who are contributing that we used pitching prospects to acquire.  As long as they can keep that developmental pipeline going......they will be fine. 

Valera is interesting, because if you go by his pre injury reports you could easily see him having top prospect potential givin the quality of his stuff.  However, coming back from injury we will have zero ideal what he will look like. 

Going back to my point on the player developmental pipeline, it will be interesting to see how this system ranks next year around this time. 

[mvp 78]

3 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

I'm not as worried about the lack of pitching as I've been in years past.  In the past we didn't have pitching because we couldn't draft or develop it.  This year the team is littered with pitchers we've either developed or pitchers/hitters who are contributing that we used pitching prospects to acquire.  As long as they can keep that developmental pipeline going......they will be fine. 

Valera is interesting, because if you go by his pre injury reports you could easily see him having top prospect potential givin the quality of his stuff.  However, coming back from injury we will have zero ideal what he will look like. 

Going back to my point on the player developmental pipeline, it will be interesting to see how this system ranks next year around this time. 

In my head, I'm swapping Valera with Delzine and Valera is now taking the Luis Perales role (oft injured phenom who will run out of time).