Red Sox Prospect Watch: Thad Ward inserts himself into conversations
By Hunter Noll
The Boston Red Sox have one of the hottest pitching prospects in baseball right now thanks to the incredible play of Thad Ward.
Michael Chavis is not the only Boston Red Sox prospect in the Majors anymore. Travis Lakins has joined him and is trying to make his case for staying long-term.
Lakins has a 4.50 ERA over six innings (three appearances). While the ERA isn’t great, it’s a short sample size. The three runs he’s allowed all came in longer appearances (2 1/3 and 2 2/3 innings). Both of those appearances saw Lakins allow his runs at the tail end, meaning fatigue could have easily been setting in.
So far, he’s looked solid overall on the mound and it would be great to see him get a longer look.
As for Chavis, he’s still extremely inserted in the Rookie of the Year campaign. In fact, it’s hard to not place him at the top of the list right now. The infielder is hitting .280 with 10 home runs and 26 RBI. His “slumps” are getting shorter, showing a fast maturing bat.
Prospect status will be gone for Chavis this time next week. It will be quicker than that even. The 23-year-old is just five at-bats away from shedding the “prospect” label (130 ABs is one of the criteria and he’s at 125). It should be noted he’ll still get mentioned quite often in these articles this season.
However, what’s exciting about that is when it happens, there will be a new player added to the top-30 prospect list for the Boston Red Sox. That’s like an early Christmas gift for me. It’s great to see who is valued as the next prospect up.
The most likely candidates will be players who have flirted with the list in the past (like Jhon Nunez). Nunez is definitely a solid candidate, but I refuse to rule out someone like Dedgar Jimenez, Kyle Hart or Thad Ward.