Nick John

The Salem Red Sox have been on a roll when it comes to winning weekly awards. Last week, Trennor O’Donnell won the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week award. This time around, another pitcher on the roster has claimed the hardware. Right-hander Blake Aita was named the Carolina League Pitcher of the Week for April 28th to May 4th. The right-hander pitched in one game during that span, but it was a dominating performance. On May 1st, Aita started against the Fredericksburg Nationals and went six innings, allowing just one hit and no walks while striking out seven. Aita also led all pitchers in swings and misses on the night with 14 of them. Aita, a sixth-round pick out of Kennesaw State in 2024, previously won the award for the week of March 31st to April 6th after pitching five hitless innings and striking four. A six-foot-four pitcher who weighs 215 pounds, Aita is an interesting arm, as he currently has the potential to possess two plus-pitches and is already showing bat-missing ability with three of his pitches. Currently he throws a fastball, sweeper, cutter and changeup. The righty throws from a three-quarters arm slot with a medium-high leg kick. His fastball is currently sitting 92-95 mph with solid command, though his velocity has shown an increase in 2025, as he previously sat around 89-92 mph in college. His sweeper sits 80-82 mph, though his extremely high spin rate for it makes it an interesting pitch. He has an advanced feel for it and doesn't miss his spot as often as other young pitchers learning the offering. His cutter currently sits 86-89 mph, while his changeup is 85-89 mph and is mostly used against left-handed batters. Aita will be developed as a starter as he continues to show solid feel on the mound and a complete arsenal, along with having an advanced feel for spin on his pitches. While his fastball has gained velocity, it’s his secondary stuff that are his best pitches due to their spin rates. His sweeper alone can sometimes hit 3200 RPMs. After being drafted in 2024, Aita did not pitch at all in the pros last season and instead made his debut on April 4th. On the season, Aita has started five games for Salem, winning two and losing one. He’s gone 24 2/3 innings, allowing nine runs, 20 hits, one home run, and six walks. He’s also managed to strike out 22 batters. He's also managed 43 whiffs. His ERA currently sits at 3.28. Aita is striking batters out at a 22.4% rate while walking them at a 6.1% rate. Batters are only hitting .217 off of him and his WHIP is sitting at 1.050 through his first five games. Most impressively, his groundball rate is sitting at 45.6%. Compared to his fellow pitchers in Single-A, Aita typically ranks within the top 10 of several categories. His ERA ranks eighth best out of qualified pitchers, he’s tied for second in innings pitched, and his 22 strike outs has him tied for seventh. When looking at his walk rate, Aita currently ranks fourth out of qualified pitchers in the Carolina League and third for WHIP. With his early success, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him promoted to High-A Greenville soon. The tougher competition in Greenville would be a good indication of where Aita currently stands in his first professional season, and how fast the Red Sox may be able to move him through the upper levels of the system. View full article

The Boston Red Sox have had several minor league players get off to hot starts at the plate. Whether it was Marcelo Mayer and his minor league leading 34 RBI or Franklin Arias and his hot hitting that led to a quick promotion to High-A Greenville, there was no shortage of great hitters. Though, the one who claimed Talk Sox’s minor league hitter for the months of March and April is instead a player who’s underlying metrics showed that he was the best hitter throughout the organization through the opening month. That hitter was Roman Anthony. Following the conclusion of the April 30th game, Anthony was hitting .292/.423/.539 in 25 games. In those 25 games he’s managed 26 hits with 11 of them being for extra bases while also driving in 14 runs. What may be more impressive, however, has been his ability to get on base as he’s walked 21 times through the first month of the season. Anthony’s ability to get on base is a huge reason for his great start as he’s laying off pitches outside the zone and forcing pitchers to come to him. This is where the metrics help to sell him as the best hitter in the entire minor league system for the Red Sox. On the season so far, Anthony has a 17.9% O-Swing which places him in the 96th percentile for Triple-A. O-Swing is used to explain what percentage of pitches outside the strike zone a batter swings at, showing that the young left-handed hitter is barely chasing. This ability to not be fooled by pitches has helped Anthony become a feared batter. His walk rate is one of the best, sitting at just under 20% at 19.6% and he’s striking out at just over 20% at 20.6%, numbers that are both impressive for someone who is only 20 years old. Thanks to his patience, Anthony has managed to wait on the pitchers he faces to get better pitches which in turn helps with his contact rates. While his zone-contact is only 80.4%, that is in part due to his very patient process at the plate. Anthony on the season is only swinging at 53% of pitches thrown in the strike zone. Meaning that of the 53% of the time he’s swinging, 80.4% of those swings are connecting the pitch. Though what’s most impressive about his swing is just how hard those hits are. Again, keep in mind the fact that Anthony is only 20 years old but so far in the season his average exit velocity on the season is sitting at 96.7 mph while his max on the season has reached 113.1 mph. Add to it a barrel percentage of 31.2% and a hard-hit rate of 62.5%. and Anthony is destroying every baseball he’s making contact with. And while the stats may not back up the thought of Anthony being the best hitter for the months of March and April, the underlying stats do. It would have been easy to defend Franklin Arias and his .346 batting average for Salem or how Abraham Toro and Vaughn Grissom are also putting up great seasons in Worcester with 29 and 28 hits respectively. However, Anthony’s process and results are much more impressive especially when you remember he’s doing this at the age of 20 against significantly older competition. Everything he’s done has screamed that he’s above that level of competition and while hits may not be dropping in all the time, everything else shows that he is arguably the top minor league hitter for the Red Sox through April. View full article

Roman AnthonyKristian CampbellMarcelo MayerFranklin AriasLuis PeralesMikey RomeroJuan ValeraJhostynxon GarciaConnelly EarlyYoeilin CespedesDavid SandlinRichard FittsHunter DobbinsMiguel BleisPayton TolleBrandon ClarkeYophery RodriguezDorian SotoJedixson PaezJustin Gonzales

Roman AnthonyKristian CampbellMarcelo MayerFranklin AriasLuis PeralesMikey RomeroJuan ValeraJhostynxon GarciaConnelly EarlyYoeilin CespedesDavid SandlinRichard FittsHunter DobbinsMiguel BleisPayton TolleBrandon ClarkeYophery RodriguezDorian SotoJedixson PaezJustin Gonzales

From what I've heard, Dobbins has been told to work on getting another out pitch while in AAA so that he has three that could be played as at least average in the majors. A lot of the "issues" in AAA could be from focusing on the pitch development over trying to make quality outings.

The Red Sox's farm system in loaded with high upside talent, and another prospect has burst onto the scene in 2025 with by winning the 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. View full article

After a month’s worth of games, the Boston Red Sox have had a rollercoaster of a season. What have been the three biggest surprises for the team so far? The Boston Red Sox have been a streaky team to open the 2025 season, currently sitting at 16 wins and 14 losses as they get ready to begin the final series of April against the Toronto Blue Jays. Below are what I feel could be three of the biggest surprises of April. Have your own picks? Tell us about them in the comments below! 1) The Red Sox Really Lost Three Times to the White Sox Everyone always says that baseball games aren’t won on paper and that you need to win the game on the field. That couldn’t have been truer when it came to how the Red Sox played Chicago this season, as they lost three times to arguably the worst team in all of baseball. The lowly White Sox only had two wins when the Red Sox traveled to the south side of Chicago for a three-game series in early April, but you wouldn’t have thought that with how they played. In the opening game, the White Sox destroyed the Red Sox, winning 11-1 as they took advantage of many mistakes. The pain continued in the second game as the White Sox stormed back to tie the game 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning thanks to a two-run home run by Luis Robert Jr. off of Zack Kelly. They would go on to win on a walk-off against Aroldis Chapman, making many Red Sox fans question what they just watched. Fortunately, the Red Sox won the next three games these two teams played against each other before another heartbreak occurred. Playing on Easter Sunday, the Red Sox were leading for much of the game as Tanner Houck shook off a rough first inning to pitch six decent innings. The wheels fell off for the Red Sox once more in the seventh as they went to the bullpen where Zack Kelly could not get a single out while allowing three runs to score to make it a 5-4 game with the White Sox winning. The deficit would only increase as the White Sox added two more runs in the eighth on a two-run shot off of Liam Hendriks, and then another a run in the ninth against Brennan Bernardino. The White Sox would hold on to win 8-4 in a game that the Red Sox were dominating until the last third of the game. To make things worse, the White Sox currently have seven wins on the season. Nearly half of their total wins have come against the Red Sox, and at the conclusion of their last series played against each other, the majority of Chicago’s wins had come against the Red Sox. To say that it’s a surprise the Red Sox lost three games to a team like Chicago is an understatement. 2) Kristian Campbell Is Really, Really Good Throughout the offseason and during spring training, it was no surprise that the Red Sox really liked Kristian Campbell. The young infielder had played across three different levels of the minor league system in 2024 while having a breakout season that resulted in him becoming a top prospect on many industry lists. After breaking camp with the team as their starting second baseman and receiving an extension with them shortly after the season began, many had a feeling he was going to be a special player. No one, however, expected him to be this good this soon. Through his first 27 games of his career, Campbell is hitting .305/.412/.474 to go along with three home runs, seven doubles and 10 RBIs. To put that into perspective with other rookies who have played at least 20 games, only three have a better batting average than him, and none have a better on-base percentage. He’s tied for the lead in doubles and is fifth in RBIs and third in home runs, not to mention that he leads all rookies in walks with 18. Campbell burst onto the scene like few others, reaching base in his first 17 games, the second-longest in Red Sox history behind only George Scott’s 26-game streak in 1966. Campbell has been one of the most consistent hitters in an otherwise streaky lineup through the first month of the season and will be looked upon to help carry the offense the rest of the season. 3) The Back-End of the Bullpen Is Better Than We Thought Throughout the offseason and into spring training a major concern for Red Sox fans was the bullpen and who would replace Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin in the late innings. While Jansen had his ups and downs in Boston, he was still an All-Star closer who brought stability to the ninth inning. Martin, on the other hand, was just one of the best relief pitchers in baseball during his two seasons in Boston, even earning Cy Young votes in 2023. Both pitchers left after the 2024 season, the Red Sox replacing them with Aroldis Chapman and the expected returns of Liam Hendricks and Garrett Whitlock. Justin Slaten was also to be among the mix for opportunities at the end of games. It would have been easy to worry about that group as Chapman is pitching in his age-37 season for Boston, Hendriks had last pitched in the majors in 2023, Whitlock had health concerns, and Slaten (though he had a great rookie season) was a relatively unknown and could be subject to a sophomore slump. Instead, three out of those four managed to defy expectations and create a dominant bullpen. While Hendricks opened the year on the Injured List, Chapman was named the closer, though it was stated he wouldn’t pitch strictly in the ninth but rather when it was most important. So far through 12 games, he’s managed to turn back the clock and look like his vintage self, as he’s struck out 16 batters through 10 1/3 innings while converting four saves. His fastball is just as effective as it usually is, averaging just around 99 mph while his sinker is even faster, averaging 100.6 mph. Thanks in part to those two pitches paired with his slider, Chapman has been able to get opposing batters to chase at a 38.3% rate while also getting whiffs at a 41.8% rate. Chapman is still prone to walk batters as he’s walked four so far, but he’s limited the damage thanks to his strikeouts. After three seasons that saw discussion revolve around Whitlock being a starter and three seasons that saw him get injured, the plan was to use Whitlock strictly out of the bullpen for 2025 just like his rookie season. The plan has worked out so far, as the right-hander looks much like his old self through his first 10 appearances. Having thrown 15 2/3 innings, Whitlock has struck out 19 batters while only allowing three runs on 11 hits and five walks. Whitlock’s dominance out of the bullpen is very similar to Chapman’s, as he’s been able to cause batters to not only chase his pitches out of the zone but to also generate a high amount of whiffs. So far through the first month of the campaign, Whitlock is getting batters to chase at a 33.6% rate and whiff on 35.8% of his pitches. Along with that, he’s been able to strike out batters at a high rate of 30.2% and limit the damage when he is hit. Despite allowing 11 hits, Whitlock’s average exit velocity isn’t anything troubling, as batters are only hitting the ball off him at about 87.5 mph on average. Early in the season, Whitlock has mostly been relying on a combination of his sinker, slider, and changeup as the three pitches make up 90% of his pitches, while his sweeper makes up the last 10%. Of those four pitches, his sinker is the only pain point, as batters are hitting .300 off of it. In comparison, his sweeper has not been hit once while his slider is being hit at a .105 average. Slaten is the final member of the three-headed monster that is the back-end of the Red Sox bullpen. Coming off of a great rookie season, Slaten has been even better despite what the numbers may look like. Appearing in 11 games, he’s thrown 10 innings and allowed four runs on four hits and two walks while striking out nine. He’s also managed to save three games. While his ERA is currently 3.60, that is entirely due to a single bad outing against Baltimore where he allowed all four of his earned runs on the season. Since that game, he’s allowed only a single hit and a single walk while striking out eight over eight innings. Slaten has been one of the best relievers in the game in April, getting batters to chase at a 36.7% rate and getting whiffs at a 32.4% rate. While his strikeouts are down compared to last season, he’s walking batters at an amazingly small rate of 5.6% and limiting hard contact thanks in part to not allowing batters to barrel up his pitches The season is still in its early stages, but as the calendar flips to May, the hope is that the Red Sox will continue to get hot and surprise us in positive ways. There’s still five full months left in the season, so we're sure to be surprised a lot more before the playoffs begin. View full article

The Boston Red Sox announced promotions for a few of their top performing prospects Sunday night. After their hot starts, Infielder Franklin Arias and pitcher Brandon Clarke were promoted from Low-A Salem to High-A Greenville. Pitcher Hayden Mullins was also promoted, as he was sent to Double-A Portland. In 19 games played, Arias may have been one of the hottest hitters throughout the organization as he opened the season with an eight-game hitting streak and reached base at least twice in each of his first six games. Despite being 19 years old, Arias has held his own, hitting .346/.407/.397 across 78 at-bats. Despite his ability to hit well, Arias has mostly been a singles hitter. Of his 27 hits, only four have been for extra bases. After his scorching start to the year, Arias started to come back down to earth last week. In his last five games, Arias has gone 6-for-22 with a walk, good for a stat line of .273/.333/.318. On the other hand, Clarke has managed to impress in all three of his starts. The fifth-round draft pick has shown the ability that has led many to believe he was a steal. He’s gone 9 2/3 innings in three starts, allowing only a single run on two hits and two walks. In that span, he’s struck out 17 and generated 33 whiffs. Clarke opened eyes in his professional debut as he threw four perfect innings and struck out five batters. In his second start, he wasn’t as in command, lasting only 2 1/3 innings, but still struck out six while only allowing a single run on two hits and a walk. His third start for Salem showed he was ready for a bigger challenge, as Clarke went another 3 1/3 innings without allowing a hit. He only walked a single batter and struck out six, generating 13 whiffs. Clarke, 22 years old, will look to continue his impressive streak in High-A for Greenville. The last of the promoted prospects, Mullins, has made four appearances and three starts for High-A Greenville this year. He’s thrown 17 innings, allowing two runs on 11 hits, one home run, and three walks. He’s also managed 27 strikeouts in that span while generating 53 whiffs. Mullins is the oldest of the three prospects promoted and has broken out after an average season in 2024. In his final start in Greenville, Mullins went four innings and allowed a single hit while striking out six. He also generated 12 whiffs. Mullins’ promotion to Double-A Portland will allow an opportunity to see if his start to the season was due to the age difference in High-A or an actual breakthrough for the left-hander. All three players have performed to open the year and won’t be the last to get promotions. It’s just a matter of time until others join them in being recognized for their excellent starts to the season. But for now, these three are being recognized for their hot starts with the potential of facing tougher competition. They earned this opportunity. View full article

Red Sox fans keep asking when the team will call up Roman Anthony. It's time that conversation starts to include Marcelo Mayer as well. There’s no disagreement that the Boston Red Sox have a wealth of top prospects that can impact the major league roster. Currently, Kristian Campbell is showcasing that with his play in Boston, while fellow top prospect Roman Anthony is destroying Triple-A pitching while with Worcester. With a stat line of .313/.451/.588 in only 80 at-bats, Anthony has many calling for his promotion. The young outfielder has showcased an advanced plate approach for someone his age, walking at a 20.6% rate along and appearing near the top of the leaderboards in several notable metrics. Not only is Anthony making contact, but he’s doing so with authority. Currently, the percent of his hits being hard-hit is sitting at 63.3%, while he’s barreling the ball up at 33.3%, numbers that are not usually seen from players at any level of professional baseball. Lost among the discussion about Anthony is the fellow top prospect playing alongside him in Worcester. Drafted fourth overall in 2021, Marcelo Mayer has dealt with injuries during his time in the Red Sox system and was even leapfrogged by both Anthony and Campbell when it came to the organization’s prospect rankings. Still only 22 years old, Mayer has managed to showcase this season why he was once viewed as a potential first overall pick back in 2021. Through 21 games on the season Mayer has managed a stat line of .267/.312/.500 to go along with six home runs and a minor-league-leading 28 RBIs. Compared to Anthony’s stats, it’s easy to see why Mayer doesn't stick out as much, especially considering he doesn’t hit it as hard as Anthony. However, Mayer has shown through the first month of the season that he’s ready for a call-up to Boston. His hard-hit rate is still above most minor league players, sitting at 53.6%, and he’s barreling the ball 11.6% of the time, nowhere near Anthony's ridiculous rate, but an amount that puts him above the majority of his fellow minor leaguers. What may be the most exciting part of his profile is Mayer’s ability to work down pitchers While he may not walk as much as Anthony (only a 5.4% rate for the season), Mayer doesn’t miss as much when he takes a swing at a pitch. His whiff percentage sits lower than Anthony’s, entering the end of April at 24.4%, and when he does swing at pitches, he’s making more contact on ones that are in the zone. Currently, Mayer’s zone-contact rate is 82.5%, slightly higher than Anthony’s 79.4%. And while you could draw that up to Anthony's proclivity for taking free passes, it is still nice to see Mayer’s ability to make consistent, quality contact against pitches in the zone. Add to it that Mayer has struck out at a lower rate than Anthony, and the shortstop deserves to be in more conversations as the next top prospect who gets the call to Boston. Defensively, he’s mostly played at shortstop, as he’s made 15 of his 21 appearances there this year and only committed a single error in 56 chances. The Red Sox seem all set for the season at short with Trevor Story, but as an organization that has said they will have the best 26 players on the roster, it doesn’t make sense to leave Mayer down in Triple-A as other players struggle. Mayer himself may be growing bored of Triple-A as well, having gone on a tear during his last seven games played. In that span dating back to April 18, he accumulated 12 hits, half of which were for extra bases and four of those were home runs. Add 18 RBIs to the pile, and he’s shown that he’s more than ready for big league pitching. Mayer will be up in the majors before the end of the season; whether that’s soon is up to the Red Sox. One thing is certain, though: more fans should be clamoring for him to be brought up just like they are doing for Anthony. A lineup featuring Campbell, Anthony and Mayer isn't just the future of the Red Sox. It should be the present. View full article

I'd like to think Bernardino's issues in 2024 were from over usage. Especially once right-handers got to see him a lot more as before the changeup, his pitches mostly broke towards a right handed batter and couldn't really get him to chase anything off the outer half of the plate unless he tried to backdoor stuff.

With the Red Sox almost a month into the season now, it would be a good idea to check in on the players currently injured and just how much longer they may be out for. The Red Sox opened the season with a handful of injuries affecting their rotation, as three starters opened the year on the Injured List. Since then, there has been some change as right-hander Brayan Bello is set to be activated for the April 22nd game against the Seattle Mariners and make his debut. Dealing with right shoulder inflammation, Bello opened the year on the IL, making four rehab starts as he built up his pitch workload each start. Making four starts between Worcester and Portland, Bello had a 7.07 ERA in 14 innings, though he did manage 21 strikeouts to only four walks in that span. After his third rehab appearance, where he went four innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits, Bello stated that he was 100%. He only threw 64 pitches in that start, and the organization wanted one more start before activating him. In his final rehab appearance, Bello went 4 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on six hits, one being a home run. He also struck out seven and threw 71 pitches. Lucas Giolito has also been working his way back from a left hamstring strain he suffered in his only spring training appearance. The right-hander spent all of 2024 hurt as he recovered from an internal brace procedure. He had spent spring training ramping up before straining his hamstring in the first inning of his spring debut. Since then, Giolito has made four rehab starts split between Worcester and Portland. In that span, he’s thrown 12 2/3 innings to a 4.97 ERA. He’s allowed seven runs on 15 hits and seven walks while striking out 13. His latest rehab appearance on Sunday saw him throw five innings and allow three runs on six hits. He also struck out four. In total, he needed 65 pitches. While not certain, he may require another rehab start to get his pitch count up before any consideration of activating him. The third member of the rotation that opened the year on the IL was Kutter Crawford, who had been dealing with right patellar soreness all spring. As of this writing, Crawford had yet to face hitters, though he has thrown a few bullpens. The current plan for the right-hander is to head down ot Fort Myers on April 22nd to face hitters and hopefully progress to extended spring camp games. If all goes well after that, he’ll begin a rehab assignment, hoping to be back by June, at the earliest. Joining the three starters on the IL is promising rookie Richard Fitts. Fitts had looked decent in three starts before the injury hit the IL after being removed from his start against the Chicago White Sox on April 12th. Placed on the IL with a mild right pectoral strain, Fitts resumed playing catch on Sunday, April 20th, and if he continues to progress accordingly, he should be back at some point in May. Connor Wong is another key piece who was hurt near the beginning of April. He fractured his left pinkie after being hit in the hand on a swing against the Toronto Blue Jays. Wong finished the inning defensively but was removed from the game afterward. At the moment, he is continuing to improve, and if his hand stays on its current healing trajectory, he should be back at some point in early to mid-May. Masataka Yoshida continues to work his way back from offseason shoulder surgery as the outfielder has improved his throwing progression. Despite having a hot spring training at the plate, Yoshida opened the year on the IL due to his inability to throw from the outfield after recovering from surgery. Yoshida has yet to start a rehab assignment, as manager Alex Cora has said that Yoshida won’t begin one until he has more good days than bad days when it comes to throwing. There is no timetable for his return at the moment. Finally, the Red Sox have two players on the 60-Day IL recovering from surgery. Left-hander Patrick Sandoval is recovering from a left UCL injury, where he won’t be able to pitch until midseason at the earliest. As of March 21st, he was throwing out to 105 feet but has not done much else. Chris Murphy is the second pitcher on the 60-Day IL as he recovers from Tommy John surgery on April 10th, 2024. The left-hander isn’t expected to return until after the All-Star break and began throwing off a mound in late March. So far in the first 24 games of the season, the Red Sox are 13-11, and they look to stay competitive until they are fully healthy. View full article

One of the best pitchers in the Red Sox's bullpen this season has evolved into a dominant southpaw thanks to the addition of one common pitch. The Boston Red Sox may have helped Brennan Bernardino become a pitcher with a higher ceiling than just a low-leverage reliever. The change in the left-hander has been noticeable through a small sample size to begin the season, but you can’t help but look at his transformation and wonder if this is his new potential. After a rough 2024 season that saw Bernardino open the year in Triple-A, the southpaw worked over the offseason on improving not just his current pitches, but also to reshape one that would help him become more dependable against right-handed batters. In his career, Bernardino has been rather dominant against left-handed batters, but when facing right-handed batters, his numbers become rather pedestrian. Right-handers have a career .276/.375/.404 stat line against him in 106 career games, a problematic stat line compared to his numbers against same-sided hitters. In 2024, right-handed batters hit better than his career numbers, managing a .284 batting average across 50 games. After the season, Bernardino was viewed by fans as a potential 40-man roster casualty. It had been his worst season in Boston, appearing in 57 games with a 4.06 ERA across 51 innings. He had allowed six home runs and walked 22 batters while striking out 56, all getting worse from his 2023 season. Add to it that the Red Sox had other left-handed pitchers they had signed in Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson, and he became viewed as expandable. Bernardino, however, used this to motivate himself and harness a pitch he hadn’t used in quite some time: a changeup. The left-hander never threw the changeup once in 2024 and only threw it 12 times in 2023. The changeup has been a wonderful addition to Bernardino’s arsenal, as it now gives him a pitch to use against right-handed batters that will break away from them. With the addition of the changeup, Bernardino has also seen a slight change in his pitch usage compared to 2024. During the 2024 season, Bernardino relied heavily on a two-pitch combination of his sinker and curveball, as he threw them 82% of the time. The remaining 18% were made up from his cutter and slider, though that has changed in 2025. His pitch usage has evened out, with his new changeup being his most thrown pitch at a 29% usage rate. It’s followed by his sinker at 27%, his cutter at 24%, his curveball at 18%, and his slider, which has only been thrown for 2% of his pitches. And while it is early in the season, Bernardino has seen improvements early on. Through his first seven games pitched, he’s managed to throw 8 1/3 innings, striking out seven hitters and having walked only one (intentionally). He’s allowed a home run, but his ERA is currently 2.16, and more importantly his WHIP is incredibly low at 0.600 thanks to the low number of hits he’s allowed early into the season. What's most important is that right-handers have struggled against Bernardino, as they’ve gone 2-for-18 against him, good for a slash line of .111/.105/.167 with five strikeouts. Batters are making good contact less often, as his barrel percentage has dropped to 5.6% on the season, along with his exit velocity dropping to 85.7 mph. The changeup has been thrown 28 times so far (only to righties), and hitters are 0-for-10 on the season against with a whiff rate of 41.2%. Reintegrating his changeup into his pitch arsenal may have allowed Bernardino to remain with the Red Sox and become something more than he's previously shown. If he can keep up this level of pitching, the Red Sox may have a deeper bullpen than many first thought. View full article

As the Boston Red Sox begin to get their offense going, there is still one player who is struggling: Triston Casas. He entered the season with expectations surrounding him to finally put together a full season, but it has been a very slow start for the first baseman. Entering Monday’s game, Triston Casas was hitting .167/.241/.250 across 20 games. The biggest issue for him, however, may be the strikeouts, as he’s struck out 20 times in 72 at-bats (25.3%). When looking at his injury-filled 2024 season, Casas has seen his strikeout percentage drop from 31.7%. In 2023, though, it sat at 25.1% — this year hasn't seen a huge increase, but still one that could lead to issues if it persists. One thing we would have to look at is Casas becoming a bit less patient at the plate, no longer working to get the pitch he wants, a fact that can be seen when looking at other parts of his game. During his rookie season of 2023, Casas was one of the best in the league at laying off pitches, his chase rate sitting at just 22.1% as a 23-year-old. He showed an amazing understanding of the strike zone for such a young player. That has seemingly regressed in 2025, as he’s now chasing 26.4% of pitches. A 4.3% increase may not look too bad on the surface, but it presents a new weakness major league pitchers can exploit. This more aggressive approach has led to a decrease in several areas of his game, as his whiff percentage has increased while his walk percentage has dropped drastically. Naturally, because he's chasing more, he's not squaring up the ball as much when he does make contact, meaning his hard-hit numbers are also on a downward trend. One of the biggest issues is definitely his walk rate, dropping from 13.9% in 2023 to now sitting at 7.1%, while his whiff percentage has increased from 28.1% to 32.4%. Now, it’s easy to say that all of this is just a slow start for Casas. It’s easy to see that he’s been known as a slow starter, and if we actually compare his first 14 games of 2023 to 2025 it doesn’t look as bad as we think. In 2023, Casas had a batting average of .135 while his OPS was .528. He also had two home runs, struck out 20 times and walked six times. Through 14 games in 2025, he was doing a little better, hitting .175 with a .523 OPS. While he only has a single home run, he also had struck out less (18) to go with four walks. Of course, his numbers have declined more as the season has continued, but this isn’t the first time he’s had a rough start to the season. Besides his more aggressive approach at the plate, there may be another issue with his approach. Last season, he was injured after tearing rib cartilage on a swing, which was partly due to his explosive upper-half compared to a laggy lower body. With improved health, the hope was his bat speed would return to its previous form. Currently, the average bat speed for Casas is 74.7 mph, and in his injured 2024 season it sat at 74.6 mph, both numbers being a drop off from his rookie season’s 75.8 mph. Add to it that his fast-swing rate (the percentage of swings that register over 75 mph) is drastically below his 2023 number. Early in the season, Casas currently sits at a 49.6% rate, while in 2023 that number was 61.5%. The injury might have forced Casas to change his stance, and now it’s hindering him at the plate. As mentioned before, he isn’t hurt, but he did return in 2024 while still feeling pain. He admitted that it still stung when he swung, and you could see on some swings he was still feeling it. What if he had to adjust his stance and how he swung because of that? And due to that, his body got used to it and his stance has now changed because of it? When you look at his stance and the changes made to it, especially with how he stands in the box, you'll notice specifically that his batter position has changed when it comes to his distance off the plate and most importantly the distance between his feet. In his 2023 season, Casas was 29.3 inches off the plate. Now, he’s 29.7 inches off the plate. While this would help him with inside pitches, it's certainly made him susceptible to outside pitching, which may explain his newfound desire to chase things off the plate. Currently in 2025, he’s whiffing on 82% of all pitches thrown down and outside of the zone to him, a number that was a more sustainable 54% in 2023. Along with this, his feet are wider apart than ever in his career at 25.3 inches, an increase from 18.4 inches in 2023. With the added distance between his feet, Casas has also seen a shift in the angle of his stance. As a rookie he stood in a closed stance, just one degree, but now he’s standing at four degrees open, which changes how he views pitches and how he can get to them depending on the zone they’re thrown at. His hands are closer in to his body and appear slightly higher to begin as well, making his timing slightly different as well. There could be a lot of behind-the-scenes reasons for Casas struggling. As a reminder, it's still only mid-April, and Casas has a history of being a slow starter. Remember, in 2023 Casas hit .133/.283/.293 at the end of April. He has time to figure it out, especially as the rest of the offense seems to be carrying the load. Though, eventually, Casas will have to show up at the plate, or else the Red Sox will have to look towards someone else to play first base. View full article

In the third and final entry in this series, we discuss Hayden Mullins, who has yet to allow a run this season in High-A Greenville. It's been a while since the Red Sox were known for their pitching development successes. You could argue that the last dominant starter they drafted and developed was Jon Lester. That looks to have changed since Craig Breslow’s hiring and overhaul of the pitching infrastructure. Although the top of the rotation is still populated with trade and free agent acquisitions, many pitching prospects are showing their growth early on this season. When Breslow was hired, one of his key points was overhauling the team’s pitching development, not just at the major league level, but also throughout the entire organization. His first act was hiring Andrew Bailey as the pitching coach to work on a new philosophy with the major league staff, but he didn’t stop there. Breslow continued to improve the infrastructure, hiring Driveline Baseball co-founder Kyle Boddy as an advisor and bringing in Justin Willard, who had formerly been the Minnesota Twins’ pitching coordinator, as director of pitching. The additions seem to be working out. Minor league pitching is improving, and pitchers are beginning to gain attention. On Thursday, we discussed Juan Valera. Friday was Brandon Clarke's turn. Today, we discuss Hayden Mullins. Mullins is the oldest of the three players in this series. He’s currently 24 and pitching in Greenville to begin the season. A 12th-round pick in the 2022 draft, Mullins currently projects to be a reliever and could possibly move faster through the minor leagues if the organization transitioned him to that role. Mullins throws from a three-quarters arm slot with a high-effort delivery. He has a plus extension and a low release point. The left-hander mainly uses five pitches: a fastball, slider, curveball, changeup, and cutter. Mullins' fastball is viewed as one of his better pitches, sitting 92-94 mph and reaching 95 mph with life. The pitch will jump on hitters when thrown up in the zone. It has one of the highest whiff of any fastball in the system. Command is still a work in progress, but it's a potentially above-average pitch. Mullins' slider is another potentially above-average pitch, sitting sits 81-85 mph with tight, two-plane shape. He’s managed to showcase an advanced feel for it. He can land it in the zone when he wants or he can bury it down to induce chases. Mullins' curveball could be viable and is currently considered an average offering. The pitch sits 78-80 mph and has a bit more depth than the slider. However, after the curveball his other pitches begin to fall off. Both the changeup and cutter profile as fringe-average offerings. At its best, the changeup features deceptive arm action and late drop. After pitching for Greenville in 2024, Mullins returned there to open the 2025 season and has impressed early on. While he's now old for the level, he's also off to a fast start. In those two appearances (one start), he’s thrown eight scoreless innings,while striking out 13 batters. He’s also been able to generate whiffs, getting a total of 26 whiffs across those eight innings. In his season debut, Mullins went four innings, allowing four hits and a single walk while striking out six batters. He needed 76 and racked up 15 whiffs. His second appearance came on in relief, but also lasted four innings. It may have been even better, as Mullins allowed only two hits and struck out seven. The real test will begin when Mullins is promoted to Double-A. View full article