Boston Red Sox Pitchers of the Month: April 2026

[Alex Mayes]

Much like most of the offense, the Boston Red Sox's pitching staff left quite a bit to be desired in April. For a team that was built around elite starting pitching, the rotation has been surprisingly ineffective thus far. As the month closed the top two arms in the rotation, Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray, were on the injured list and were working their way back to form. That leaves us a limited group of pitchers to choose from, but there are a few standouts who deserve their flowers for trying to hold things together before May.

Ranking Red Sox's Best Pitchers In April

#3: Aroldis Chapman

Chapman gets the number three spot because he’s seen fairly limited action, but he’s been mostly solid when called upon. For the month of April, he posted a 1.35 ERA, 2.25 FIP, a 12.15% K/9, and a 4.05 BB/9. He’s been less sharp than he was last year, but he’s still a dependable closer for the team. There was some initial concern about his lack of velocity early in the season, but he’s been ramping back up to his usual high-90s fastball that tops out above 100 mph when he needs it to. What’s interesting is he seems to be throwing his off-speed pitches a bit more this year instead of just reaching back and throwing gas, so he may be looking to ease some of the stress that years of hurling fireballs has put on his left arm.

#2: Connelly Early

Early appeared in five games in April and posted a 3.08 ERA, 5.16 FIP, 7.52 K/9, 4.10 BB/9, and an impressive 42.5% groundball percentage. The rookie southpaw has been arguably the most consistent arm throughout April and posted the best start of his career against the Orioles to close the month out. He’s lost a bit of velocity this season, but has showcased his ability to get into the upper-90s when necessary. The biggest knock against Early right now is that he seems quite impacted by the weather on his start days, and he’s sometimes struggled to get past the fourth inning, even when things are going well. That being said, he’s shown a ton of potential so far this season and has the makings of a top-of-the-rotation arm as long as he can remain durable enough to turn over a lineup more than twice.

#1: Ranger Suarez

Suarez had a rough start to the season, but he has settled down nicely to end the month. He turned in a 2.35 ERA over 30 2/3 innings in April, posting a 2.66 FIP, 1.0 fWAR, and a .208 BABIP. He left 72% of runners on base during the month and worked deep into a handful of games. It’s likely no coincidence that the team’s strongest offers often coincided with Suarez’s best starts of the season. He’s almost the antithesis of the program that Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey are running; he’s not a fireballer and his K/9 only sits at 7.63 for the month, but he’s effective at getting groundball outs, so long as the defense behind him plays up to par. Suarez felt like a panic signing after the team missed on bringing back Alex Bregman but as April waged on, we started to see the same version of Suarez that helped bring the Phillies to the postseason over the last few seasons. While his contract may be a bit of an albatross in a few years, if he’s going to continue to produce numbers like he did in April, then he’s going to be someone that fans enjoy supporting while he’s on the mound, regardless of what happens during the games he doesn’t start.

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Not all hope has been lost in Boston, as Crochet and Gray are both nearing their returns and as long as they are able to pitch like we’ve seen in the past, then the Red Sox should be in a better place. The offense can’t be ice cold forever, so everyone on this list should get ample opportunities to either put games away or pitch their way late into games behind multiple runs of support. Chapman, Early, and Suarez weren’t the only bright spots on the pitching side of things, but their performances in April offered the kind of optimism that has been sorely lacking over the past six weeks.

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