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

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.

Interested in learning more about the Boston Red Sox's top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!