The Boston Red Sox have plenty of prospects that the following season could be good too. Just exactly who will make it their year in 2019 though?
Enmanuel De Jesus has had a very peculiar trend going on during his career. The Boston Red Sox pitching prospect has split time between two levels every season, doing significantly better in one as opposed to the other.
2014 was spent strictly in Rookie Ball. 2015, however, saw a heavy majority in Rookie Ball (1.66 ERA) and a small amount of time in Short-A (2.70 ERA).
Then 2016 saw time in Short-A (2.42 ERA) and Full-A (5.96 ERA). 2017 again saw time in Short-A (3.40 ERA) and Full-A (6.17 ERA). Finally, 2018 saw time in Full-A (3.93 ERA) and Advanced-A (11.17 ERA).
So why will 2019 be his year?
De Jesus is by no means a power pitcher. His fastball isn’t going to flirt with 100 and his curveball will be in the 60s before it hits 80.
Due to that, the left-handed pitcher needs to rely on deception and accuracy. At the end of last season, that became an issue.
In 2018, De Jesus appeared in 25 games, starting 19. Both of those were easily career-highs. The now-22-year-old also threw 122 innings, almost double the amount of his previous career-high (67 2/3).
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With the massive workload, De Jesus faltered down the stretch. He walked 32 people in those 122 innings, 14 of those free passes came in the final 33 innings of his season.
The workload is something that De Jesus will have to get used to. Now that he’s had a year of that, however, improvements should be seen. Maybe he will still struggle as that innings-count gets higher and higher, but he should look more comfortable later in the season.
He also finally looked strong in Full-A. Will 2019 see more improvements at that level? Or will he get more of a crack at Advanced-A and possibly even Double-A?
The smart money would be on a start in Full-A with a promotion at some point to Advanced-A. However, this could be the year he breaks that two-league streak and gets some time in Double-A as well before the season ends.
De Jesus has climbed up the Red Sox minor league ladder steadily over the past few seasons. Now that he’s finally seen a large workload in 2018, he should be more comfortable in an expanded role.
With another crack at Full-A and Advanced-A and more experience in a large role, 2019 could shape up to be the year of Emmanuel De Jesus.