2026 Prospects

[drewski6]

Make no mistake, I would trade Valera right now for 2 months of prime Lincecum.

[Hugh2]

20 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He could be a high caliber arm next season and going forward. I'm just saying that it's not working out now and would have been terrible last postseason. Sox definitely got the better end of the deal for 2026. 

I don't regret that trade one bit, I was a little sad at the time because I love high ceiling arms, despite their whif rates (no pun intended), but it was a good trade. 

EDIT: this is why I like Valera a lot too, I'm well aware of the risks but I still think his ceiling is sky high. 

[Hugh2]

17 hours ago, drewski6 said:

The little guys like Tim Lincecum usually dont have long careers because they have to go max effort.

 

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Mark Prior at 6'5" had less service time.

Kerry Wood at 6'5" had to be moved to the pen in his 20's because of injuries. 

Frame doesn't make the pitcher. 

Pedro didn't get beyond his mid 30's, but not many pitchers do. 

Sonny Gray is having a renaissance after age 35. 

Things that are generally true aren't always true.  Big guys are generally thought to have the body to withstand the rigors of a full season for the long haul, but on the other hand big guys get hurt too and little guys like Pedro Martinez have HOF careers. 

Rules have exceptions, doesn't make following them bad practice. 

[moonslav59]

On 9/15/2026 at 7:24 AM, mvp 78 said:

Delzine may be the only real upside guy left without knowing much about LaFavor. Valera is a big question mark at this point. Wehunt is fine as a depth piece. Not much to talk about with the rest of the pitching. Seems like back to square one. 

Agreed, but Brez did use some of the young pitching depth to improve the quality of the MLB staff and line-up.

Staff:

Perales for Bennett (5 yrs of control)

Clarke, Fajardo & Aita for Gray (might just be one year)

Travieso (+Jh Garcia) for Oviedo & Samaniego

Line-up:

Dobbins, Fajardo & Aite for Contreras (3 yrs of control)

Early for Mead

Harrison, Drohan (+DHam) for Durbin, Monasterio & Seigler (One could argue the money saved on no Bregman allowed us to sign Suarez)

Added farm pitching:

Sandlin & Hicks for Ziehl (maybe a push)

Delzine (IFA) Phillips, Brown & LaFavor('25 and '26 Drafts)

Barrett Morgan, Jacob Mayers, Leighton Finley and some others have some hopes.

 

[moonslav59]

The farm seasons are over, except for WOO.

soxprospects.com has next year's roster projections set up:

https://www.soxprospects.com/2027.htm

Some notables:

Crawford joins Paez, Wehunt, Holobetz and Ziehl in the Woo rotation. While that rotation looks decent for a AAA team, Crawford looks like the only meaningful ML-impact starter. They have Mullins as the #6, but maybe he gets moved to the pen. The pen has Bastardo, Gamboa, Smaniego, Rivera and Olds.

The everyday players at Woo look pretty decent, but with Duran, Jones, Yoshida, Eaton and Cheng listed in la-la land as bubble players, I'm going to push Monasterio, Gasper, Eaton & Cheng to AAA, making there roster look like this:

C: Jo Garcia, Nate Baez (H White/ GRod AA)

1B: Casas, Gasper (Hickey?)

2B: Seigler, Rodgers, McDonough (M White AA)

3B: Eaton, Romero (Winnay AA)

SS: Arias (MLB?) Liendo (Godbout AA)

LF: Castro (Gutierrez AA)

CF: Ward, Bleis (I Jackson AA)

RF: Campbell (Gonzales AA)

DH: Brannon (AA>AAA) or Jo Garcia/Casas/Gasper/Seigler (Ro Hernandez AA)

[mvp 78]

5 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

 

Things that are generally true aren't always true.  Big guys are generally thought to have the body to withstand the rigors of a full season for the long haul, but on the other hand big guys get hurt too and little guys like Pedro Martinez have HOF careers. 

Rules have exceptions, doesn't make following them bad practice. 

I agree. My comments were in large part due to: 

"He is too little.  If I can beat you up in a fight, get off the 40 man roster."

[mvp 78]

Castro had another 2 tater night (5 in his last 4 G). His season OPS is now up to 710. 

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Castro had another 2 tater night (5 in his last 4 G). His season OPS is now up to 710. 

I'm still done with all Castro and Bleis hopes.

Cespedes regained a sliver of hope, this year.

[moonslav59]

Castro went 3-4 with 7 RBI, tonight. (Maybe I should reconsider.)

Ward went 5-5, so expect notin to start up, again.

Arias 2-4 w BB.

WOO won 16-1.

 

[moonslav59]

Two more games and the minor league regular season ends.

200+ PAs

OBP

.499 Primera FCL/A-

.450 Gasper AAA

.407 Ronny Hernandez A+

.405 Winnay A+/AA

.403 Salazar A-

.402 Godbout 3 teams

.399 Brito FCL/A-

.398 Arias AA .407/AAA .385

.390 Fermin A-

.385 Gonzales A+/AA

___________________

SLG% Leaders

.582 Primera FCL/A-

.566 Gasper AAA

.560 Brannon AA

.551 Arias AA .587/AAA .488

.548 Ronny Hernandez A+

.530 Godbout 3 teams

.497 Rosario AA

.494 Jo Garcia AA

.480 Ma White A+/AA

.479 Salazar A-

[moonslav59]

TOP ERAs on Farm  (35+ IP)

1.32 Eyanson A-/AA (Traded) .476 OPSA

1.60 Bennett AAA (.570)

2.25 B Morgan A-/A+ (.452 is pretty awesome)

2.59 Rivera AA/AAA (.594)

2.64 Delzine FCL/A- (.527)

3.00 Tolbert A- (.616)

3.23 Uberstine A+/AAA (Traded) .621

3.27 Ingrassia A+ (.613)

3.46 Brown A-/A+ (.635)

3.50 Wehunt AA/AAA (.692)

3.62 Walker FCL/A- (.571)

3.68 Gamboa AAA (.743)

3.69 Paez AA/AAA (.644)

3.95 Mullins AA/AAA (.619)

3.98 Futrell 3 teams (.718)

 

[moonslav59]

Here is my end of season rankings

(soxprospects listed if different than mine)

My TOP 35

1. Arias

2. Primera (3)

3. Gonzales (2)

4. Valera

5. Godbout

6. Hull (7)

7. Delzine (6)

8. Schaffner

9. Gutierrez (14)

10. Holobetz (9)

11. Mataczynski 

12. Shelar

13. Cespedes (10)

14. Winnay (19)

15. Brown (20)

16. Ma White (27)

17. Wehunt (13)

18. B Morgan (35)

19. Jo Garcia (37)

20. Brannon (38)

21. Ziehl

22. Heyman (28)

23. Ge Rodriguez (26)

24. Wehunt (13)

25. I Jackson (29)

26. LaFavor (30)

27. Phillips (15)

28. Soto (17)

29. Bastardo (18)

30. Rivera (25)

31. Finley (41)

32. Futrell (45)

33. Monegro (24)

34. Mullins (23)

35. Romero (22)

[moonslav59]

The final game was cancelled. The farm season is over.

We some nice growth by a few players, several graduations, and several prospects traded.

BOY Prospect Rankings:

1. Tolle- graduated

2. Arias (now #1)

3. Early- traded for Mead

4. Witherspoon & 6 Eyanson- traded for AR & Gutierrez #14

5. Valera (now #4)

7. Phillips (now #15 )

8. Gonzales (now # 2)

9. Soto (now # 17 )

10. Bennett- graduated

11. Godbout (now # 5)

12. Romero (now #22 )

13. Uberstine - traded for Eli White

14. Holobetz (now #9 )

15. Azocar- traded for AR w/ #5 & #7

16. Castro (now #34 )

17. Ramos (now #31 )

18. Rivas (now #NR )

19. Samaniego- graduated

20. Wehunt (now #13 )

21-30: Bastardo >18, Taylor >NR, Delzine>6, Mullins>23, Monegro>24, Silverio>32, Brito>33, Ziehl<21, GeRod>26, Watson (DFA)

When you consider we graduated or traded away these picks, other gains and losses may be by attrition.

1-3-4-6-10-14-15-19-30

Soxprospects.com's current top prospects and moves up or down:

1. Arias (+1 as #1 Tolle graduated)

2. Gonzales (+6, despite losing 4 between 1 & 8)

3. Primera (+33, despite losing 9)

4. Valera (+1, but lost 3)

5. Godbout (+6, despite losing 5

6. Delzine (+17, despite losing 7)

7. Hull & #8 Schaffner, #11 Mataczynski, #12 Shelar & #30 LaFavor drafted this year

10. Cespedes (+24, despite losing 9)

13. Wehunt (+7 but lost 8)

14, Gutierrez (added in AR trade)

15. Phillips (-7 and lost 7)

16. Paez (reacquired)

17. Soto (lost 8 while losing 8)

18. Bastardo (+8, but lost 8)

19. Winnay (was NR)

20. Brown (+40 and lost 9)

[moonslav59]

Largest gains, counting attrition:

+32+++ Brown (NR to start season)

+31 Brown

+24 Primera

+15 Cespedes

+10 Delzine

Largest losses

-42+ Rivas

-23 Ramos

-13 Soto

-12 Phillips

[mvp 78]

Castro fell 18 spots. Wilyer was still in AA when he was Castro's age. Maybe he can make a leap next season. He's been a bit of a rollercoaster as a prospect. 

[moonslav59]

6 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Castro fell 18 spots. Wilyer was still in AA when he was Castro's age. Maybe he can make a leap next season. He's been a bit of a rollercoaster as a prospect. 

I don't disagree, but it's not a very exciting rollercoaster, as it barely goes up very high.

He barely got over .800 in a short time at FCL in 2022, and again at GRE in '23 and '24, but .812 is as high as the coaster climbed.

It fell sharply when he was promoted to POR in 2024 (.504,) but that's not the kind of thrill I want from a ride. .753 in 2025 (AA) was not all that great and then .722 in AAA this year was also meh.

He is just 23, so there is time for a boost, but I just can't feel it with this guy. That being said, I said the same thing about Cespedes, and he kinda had a boost this season. (I also linked these two with Bleis as the "better do something this season of I'm done with you" group.) I'm not sure Cespedes at .731 is all that inspiring either, and he's a level lower than Castro, although he's almost 2 years younger. The 20 homers have to be taken with a grain of salt, too, since the balls are juiced.

[moonslav59]

Two interesting Rule 5 players: Brannon & Garcia...

Brooks Brannon (22) 1B/DH/C3: The guy had a very nice season at the plate and was pretty highly regarded for a 9th round pick in 2022. (soxprospects.com ranked him 30th shortly after he was drafted, but he not been top 30 since then.

He was second on the farm in HRs (22) and second in OPS (.915) among all farm hands with 300+ PAs. His .280 BA & .355 OBP would be hard to duplicate in the bigs, since he swings and misses too much. (115 Ks in 350 ABs) He has not hit all that well, until this year.

Soxprospects.com ranks him 38th and calls him a "high variance with issues on defense. Like Garcia, he's been injured a lot and has a high chase rate. His best chance would be as a catcher, but sadly, he seems like his only position can be DH or 1B.

Johanfran Garcia (21) DH/C3/1B? The younger brother of the PASSWORD has always intrigued me, but has suffered from injuries almost every season.

He tied for 8th on the farm with HRs (18) and his .833 OPS was 5th among prospects with 300+ PAs. The .284 BA & 339 OBP are nice, but he's not likely to duplicate that at higher levels. He K's about as much as Brannon (103 in 320 ABs) He had some decent hitting sprees at lower levels.

Soxprospects is not very high on him (37th) but says his potential is "fluid." He shown the same "loud tools" at bat since returning from major knee surgery. He was ranked #14 in fall of '23 and hung around in the top 20 for 2024, but the knee injury dropped him down a lot.

They both kinda seem like Mickey Gasper types- failed catchers trying to hold on with the strength of their bats, but maybe not meeting DH/1B hitting expectations. While Gasper is a switch hitter, he sucks vs LHPs. Garcia & Brannon both bat RH'd. It's highly unlikely we try some sort of DH platoon with 2 of these three, with both being back up 1Bmen and third catcher depth, so maybe one can beat out Gasper, if they can show they don't need to be platooned.

[moonslav59]

Some interesting stats from this year's Sox farm:

SBs: 61 Braiden Ward (9CS) in 109 games. He only had 66 singles and 39 BBs. (DHam broke the Sox record with 70 in 2022.) Opata was second with 54 in 103 games. Here's a doozie: Jhorman Bravo had 37 SBs in just 46 games! He had 87 singles + BBs. (I know players can steal 3B and even home, but still...) Edwin Darville had 34 SBs in 35 games (45 singles + BBs)

BBs: Will Turner led the team with 84 (103 Ks) and KC was second with 73 (126 Ks,) but Jack Winnay has 72 BBs and 87 Ks. His .405 OBP led the farm among prospects with 350+ PAs. Primera had an eye-opening stat line for a guy with over 300 PAs: 48 BB but just 36 Ks! Others with more BB than Ks: Gasper 42/39, Ro. Hernandez 40/40 & C Alvarado 35/32.

XBHs: 54 Arias, 52 Brannon, 51 Azocar, 48 Cespedes & 45 YRod

300+ PAs

SLG: Primera .581, Brannon .560 & Arias .557

OBP: Primera .499, Winnay .405, Arias .400

RBI+Runs-HRs

144 Arias

132 Justin G

128 Capra

126 Opata

125 Ma White

124 Cespedes

122 Castro

121 Azocar

Notables:

118 Jackson

117 Salazar & McDonough

103 Primera (just 78 games)

100 Heyman

98 Brannon

 

[moonslav59]

Top prospects by ETA:

2026 (25) Rivera (57) Gamboa Paez (18)

2027 (1) Arias (9) Holobetz (13) Wehunt (16) Bastardo (21) Ziehl

2028 (2) Gonzales (5) Godbout (10) Cespedes (14) Gutierrez (15) Phillips (19) Winnay (27) Ma White

2029 (3) Primera (4) Valera (7) Hull (7) Schaffner (20) Brown (30) LaFavor

2030 (11) Mataczynski (12) Selar (17) Soto

[mvp 78]

17 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Two interesting Rule 5 players: Brannon & Garcia...

 

They both have a ton of power. On the SP podcast, they've noted that they don't value them highly because of the defense and the swing and miss profile. They both k like Dalbec, but don't get the bb's to go along with it. The in zone contact rate is poor for both of them. 

[moonslav59]

33 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They both have a ton of power. On the SP podcast, they've noted that they don't value them highly because of the defense and the swing and miss profile. They both k like Dalbec, but don't get the bb's to go along with it. The in zone contact rate is poor for both of them. 

Dalbec is a good comp, and even Bobby D lost the ability to get on base- or rather pitchers figured out how to get him to strike out without walking him too much.

I fully recognize the likely path both these guys end up on, but occasionally, someone from this mold comes through. The odds may be long. I'm not projecting they even make the 26 one day. Hell, they may never make our 40, and their Rule 5 status might force a trade or loss from our system. I won't get upset, but there is still a sliver of hope in me that one or both of these guys can make it and be a plus on the 26. I doubt either makes the Sox 26 in 2027, but maybe they get a look-see on another team.

 

[moonslav59]

A look at some impressive K:BB numbers from the farm 2026:

82:8 Paez (71 IP)

130:19 Futrell (115 IP)

143:37 Brown (107 IP)

129:25 Ziehl (122 IP) He also had a 1.71 G/F ratio (Best of this group)

96: 18 Carlson (82 IP)

132:36 Holobetz (119 IP)

[mvp 78]

 

[moonslav59]

G Rod had a .695 OPS w GRE, but only had 57 Ks in 353 ABs.

He was an IFA signing by Bloom in 2023.

[mvp 78]

@drewski6 Owen Hull with a nice shoutout here:

 

[drewski6]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

@drewski6 Owen Hull with a nice shoutout here:

 

Hes toolsy, and I believe that the guy they got in the first round (coincidentally, but maybe not) his teammate and roommate was an underslot and the real prize of the draft is Owen Hull.

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, drewski6 said:

Hes toolsy, and I believe that the guy they got in the first round (coincidentally, but maybe not) his teammate and roommate was an underslot and the real prize of the draft is Owen Hull.

That's what happened when they nabbed Roman in the 2nd round too. He seemed like the guy with the highest ceiling.

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

That's what happened when they nabbed Roman in the 2nd round too. He seemed like the guy with the highest ceiling.

Roman better get his act together before I start up the Owen is the new Roman (Im not there yet)

[drewski6]

Rolls off the tongue well tho

[drewski6]

If owen smashes AA next year, gets called up to AAA and keeps raking - and Roman continues to struggle to stay healthy, keep his drinking in check, hit the ball in the air.....then youll start hearing owen is the new roman

Also, every letter in owen is in new roman 

Therefore: you cant spell "new roman" without owen

Am I nailing these?