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Boston Red Sox Prospects: Candidates for early season promotions

By Hunter Noll

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - APRIL 09: A general view of Fenway Park with the 9 World Series pennant logos before the home opener between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 09, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - APRIL 09: A general view of Fenway Park with the 9 World Series pennant logos before the home opener between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on April 09, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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Red Sox Fenway Park
28 Sep 1996: General view of the outfield wall at Fenway Park during a game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 4-2. /

Red Sox third base prospect Nicholas Northcut (High-A to Double-A)

Nicholas Northcut was drafted by the Red Sox back in 2018 out of high school with a major power tool. However, he didn’t really get going there. In 47 games in 2018 he hit just two home runs. Then in 54 games in 2019 he had just one. This cooled off some of the hype around him.

But when 2021 came around, so did the home runs. Northcut set new career-highs in every category while playing in Low-A. Seriously, the right-handed hitter’s entire .261/.352/.513 slash line were all career-bests. He had new highs in doubles (32), home runs (17), RBI (77), and runs scored (68) as well.

This led to Northcut starting 2022 in High-A. So far it’s been nothing but fireworks. Kid Cutty has a .250/.300/.661 slash line through 28 games. That insane slugging percentage is propped up by four doubles and an absurd 14 home runs. It feels like I’m sending out the obligatory “Nick Northcut hits nukes” every few minutes at this point.

Northcut already has 19 runs scored and 30 runs driven in on the year. Can we sit here for a minute and realize how ridiculous that is?

Now, he has only spent 28 games in High-A. And the five walks compared to 45 strikeouts is a bit of an issue. So they might want to keep the third baseman at the level for a little while longer. See if he can work on those numbers a bit more.

However, the biggest fear with that might be that those strikeouts with few walks will lead to a major dip in his OBP. Because if you’re striking out so much you have to rely on the ball not getting caught when you actually do put it in play.

You don’t need to worry about the ball being caught if it never lands though. And Northcut is demolishing baseballs at a terrifying rate right now. At what point do they call him up to Double-A if only to spare poor High-A pitchers from having to watch their pitches hit to the next city over?

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