Under the Radar Prospects: Boston Red Sox 

Despite trading away their last two first round picks as part of the package for new ace Garrett Crochet in top 100 prospects Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery, the Boston Red Sox still maintain a consensus top five farm system in baseball. A testament to both their upper echelon talent and solid depth, Roman Anthony (2), Kristian Campbell (7) and Marcelo Mayer (11) all feature within the top 20 of MLB.com’s top 100 prospects. In particular, Campbell went from being ranked outside of the organizational top 30 to being named both Minor League Baseball Hitter and Breakout Player of the Year in one season. While this kind of extraordinary jump is more of an anomaly than the norm, every year players who were originally viewed as mid-tier prospects or organizational depth emerge as true potential impact prospects.  

Here are three prospects who have an opportunity to make their way up prospect rankings this season:  

Jojo Ingrassia, Pitcher  

Ingrassia has the ability to strike out as many batters as any player in the minors, but he has lacked the ability to stay healthy. Injuries have been an issue for the southpaw since college. The California native started his collegiate career at San Diego State but pitched in only 11 games over two seasons with poor results. After suffering a rotator cuff injury in 2022, he transferred 100 miles down the road to Cal State Fullerton where he served as a closer for the season. The results were much better, with a 2.42 ERA over 26 games while striking out over a batter an inning. This uptick in production was enough for the Red Sox to select him in the 14^th round of the 2022 amateur draft. He would have begun his pro career that season in the Florida Complex League, but lingering shoulder issues kept him from making his professional debut until 2024. He also missed a month last season with elbow inflammation. 

When Ingrassia has been on the field, however, the results have been dominant. He pitched to a 1.85 ERA for the Low A Salem Red Sox, starting in the bullpen but finishing the season as a member of the rotation. The 22-year-old struck out an elite 14.35 batters per nine innings and those strike out numbers give him the chance to become at least an optionable middle reliever. If he can stay healthy and advance to facing older competition while maintaining success, he could be a late innings option in a few years. The 6-foot-1 pitcher would have to develop better secondary pitches to become even a back of the rotation candidate, but he will continue to develop as a starter for the time being.  

Mikey Romero, Infielder 

The Red Sox used the 24^th overall pick in 2022, to bring Romero into the organization out of high school. While this may not seem like the typical profile for an under the radar prospect, injuries have caused his prospect stock to dip a bit. Ranking as highly as 5th in the Red Sox system back in 2023, the infield prospect now sits outside of the organizational top 10. Stress fractures in his back cost him most of the 2023 season, and the rehab carried over into 2024. He made his season debut in mid-May and was then healthy for the duration of the season, save for a week missed with concussion symptoms after taking a ground ball to the face in August. The former LSU commit is a bat-first prospect is a solid contact hitter who will need to refine his approach to find success at higher levels. He has a tendency to expand the zone and needs to make better contact on pitches inside the zone. He will spend the entire 2025 season at 21 years old, meaning that there is still time for him to add strength to go along with his high-quality bat speed. In addition, reports out of spring training say that he appeared to add strength and size to his 6-foot frame this past offseason. If he can generate more power without sacrificing contact, he could have the ceiling of an everyday infielder.  

On defense, the drafted shortstop is not expected to remain at the position as he has both below average speed and arm strength for the position. Still, he has the ability to be an at least average infielder all around the infield and has soft hands that could allow him to be a potential plus defender at either second or third base. With concerns about the lefty hitter’s ability to hit left-handed pitching and his potential versatility to move around the infield, he should still be able to contribute as a strong side platoon bat and utility infielder should he not reach his everyday ceiling. 

Jedixson Paez, Pitcher 

A native of Tinaquillo, Venezuela, the Red Sox signed Paez as international free agent in January of 2021 and he made his debut later that year. After a successful 50 innings in the Dominican Summer League that year, he made his stateside debut in 2022. Since then, he has steadily progressed through the minors and has maintained a sub-4 ERA at each stop. After striking out just under 8 batters per nine innings in his first two U.S. season, his strikeout numbers increased to 10.5/K9 in 2024. The 6-foot-1 pitcher’s velocity has also slowly increased every year that he has been in America, most likely a result of the Red Sox’s strength and conditioning program allowing him to add strength to that frame. While he still only features mid-tier velocity that sits at 89-92 miles per hour, he can max out at 94 after his velocity ticked up again last year. 

Paez split last season between Salem and the High A Greenville Drive, pitching to a 3.17 ERA in 96.2 innings combined over the two levels. He split his time just about evenly between the rotation and the bullpen, with 12 and 10 appearances in each role, respectively. Paez is set to return to Greenville to begin 2025 as a member of their rotation. He was also a member of their Spring Breakout roster in 2025. He will be Rule 5 draft eligible for the first time this upcoming offseason, meaning that Boston would have to select him to their 40-man roster to protect him from being poached by another organization. His best pitch is his change-up and his other breaking pitches are also ahead of his fastball. If Boston chooses to continue developing him as a starter, he could serve as a swingman in the majors with potential that could allow him to eventually claim a back of the end rotation spot if he can either improve his fastball or continue to develop his solid off-speed pitches.