Boston Red Sox Prospect Watch: Big performances mark breakouts
By Hunter Noll
Red Sox High-A (Greenville)
Nick Yorke hasn’t been able to replicate the success of his 2021 season yet. However, he could be turning things around. The right-handed-hitting second baseman collected a hit in four-of-five games this week. He even drew a few walks and drove in some runs. Yorke’s slashing .237/.310/.342 with five doubles and five home runs. He’s driven in 24 runs, scored 30 more, and stolen five bases.
Tyler McDonough’s strong overall year continued with a walk-off home run on Saturday. The switch-hitting second baseman/outfielder is slashing .245/.329/.397 with 13 doubles, three triples, and eight home runs. Run production has been great too. He’s driven in 37 runs, scored 42 more, and stolen 14 bases.
Niko Kavadas has been on-a-tear for most of the season. And somehow the first baseman is even better since getting the promotion to High-A. He’s slashing .385/.529/.923 with two doubles and four home runs in nine games with Greenville so far. Kavadas has already driven in eight runs, scored six more, and drawn six more walks (60 total on the season).
Big Joe Davis is slashing .265/.315/.581 with one double and 14 home runs so far. The right-handed hitting first baseman seems to hit a home run every other at-bat. 14 homers in 136 at-bats is pretty wild. He’s driven in 27 runs and scored 25 more.
Matthew Lugo has a .279/.330/.506 slash line with 17 doubles, eight triples, and nine home runs. The right-handed-hitting shortstop has 41 runs batted in, 39 runs scored, and six steals. His power has seen a major uptick and he’s already close to the same amount of run production he had last season.
Gilberto Jimenez is having a strange season. The switch-hitting centerfielder is currently slashing .266/.314/.393 with 12 doubles, one triple, and a career-high five home runs. He’s driven in 21 runs, scored 29 more, and stolen 11 bases. Tons of speed, but he needs to work on his base running. Still, there’s insane potential here.
Nathan Hickey was promoted to High-A with Kavadas. The right-handed hitting catcher is currently 3-for-15 with two doubles so far. He put up some monster numbers in Low-A, so a slightly slow start in Greenville is nothing to worry about. He’ll figure it out quickly enough.
Nicholas Northcut may only be hitting .220 with a .288 on-base percentage, but that .520 slugging percentage is pretty wild. The right-handed hitting third baseman has nine doubles and 22 home runs already. He’s driven in 50 runs and scored 37 more. The 22 home runs are already a career-high, and he’s not exactly slowing down too much.
Jacob Webb made just one appearance this week, but the right-handed reliever did his thing in that outing. Webb tossed two shutout, hitless innings. He walked just one batter while striking out four. Webb has a 1.13 ERA, .143 BAA, 1.13 WHIP, and 15 strikeouts in eight innings pitched.
Michael Getty is having a really good season in his first year as a pitcher (used to be an outfielder). The right-handed reliever had a phenomenal June (one earned run in 10 1/3 innings pitched), and already has a shutout inning in July. He’s down to a 3.62 ERA, .321 BAA, 1.54 WHIP, and 23 strikeouts compared to six walks in 27 1/3 innings pitched.
Shane Drohan struggled a bit in his start this week (four runs on nine hits over 4 1/3 innings pitched). He did add six more strikeouts to his eye-popping total though. The left-handed pitcher now holds a 4.18 ERA, .235 BAA, and 1.32 WHIP on the season. In 71 innings, he’s walked 30 batters and struck out 93 more.