Trennor O'Donnell Brings Home Carolina League Pitcher of the Week Award

In what is viewed as one of the deepest farm systems in baseball, the Boston Red Sox have earned another award early in the 2025 season. Following a dominant week on the mound, Trennor O’Donnell was named the Carolina League’s Pitcher of the Week for April 21-27, as announced by Minor League Baseball on Monday.

Pitching for the Salem Red Sox, O'Donnell pitched five shutout innings and only allowed three hits. The right-hander also struck out seven batters and managed to generate four whiffs in the outing. Across the five innings, he only needed 56 pitches, 40 of them thrown for strikes. In the outing O’Donnell, taken in the eighth round of the 2023 draft, managed to retire the final eight batters he faced.

The Red Sox would go on to win the game against the Hickory Crawdads 19-1.

O’Donnell has appeared in four games (two starts) this season, throwing 15 innings to the tune of a 4.20 ERA. Across those four appearances, he’s struck out 19 and walked nine while allowing 16 hits, including a single home run. His strikeouts per nine innings, sitting at 11.40, stand out, as does his accompanying strikeout rate of 27.5%.

Last season, O’Donnell made his professional debut with Salem as he bounced between the bullpen and rotation. In total, he made 20 appearances (six starts), where he threw 63 innings with a 4.00 ERA. He struck out 71 batters while walking only 21. However, what may be the most exciting stat was how he only allowed three home runs across the entire season.

In 2024, O’Donnell’s best appearance came on May 16th in his first start of the year. In that game, he threw five perfect innings while striking out five.

O’Donnell is a physically intimidating figure on the mound, standing 6’7” as he towers over his opposition. The right-hander throws from a three-quarters arm slot and has shown the ability to repeat his delivery rather well, allowing him to pitch deep into games. He relies mostly on four pitches, including a fastball, sweeper, slider and changeup, with a fifth pitch being introduced this season in the form of a splinker, as reported by Beyond the Monster's Andrew Parker. The splinker is almost like a hybrid of a splitter and sinker, as the pitch incorporates characteristics of both. Held with a split-fingered grip, it has a sinking motion more similar to the sinker. The pitch was first developed by Paul Skenes accidentally but has made its way around professional baseball now.

Currently, O’Donnell, 24, projects to be an organizational depth arm who could be an innings eater. However, due to his large size and ability to throw strikes consistently, should he develop an above-average pitch, that projection could change. Regardless of his projection, there’s a good chance that the imposing right-hander receives a promotion to High-A Greenville in the coming months.

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