The Boston Red Sox enjoyed a big season for their minor league system. Top prospect Roman Anthony became a superstar in the majors while Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell made it to the show. Even Jhostynxon Garcia got a taste of Fenway baseball.
Those were all massive names entering 2025, though. What about the prospects who weren’t as highly-touted before the start of the season? Which players in Boston’s system raised their stock the most this year?
There are some obvious answers that we’re going to stay away from (Payton Tolle and Connelly Early) because they both made their major league debuts. That disqualifies them from my prospect rankings, and it’s also just not fun to tell you all about two players you already know more than enough about.
With that in mind, let’s stick to prospects still working towards their big league debuts. Lucky for us, the Red Sox have plenty of options in that category.
5 Red Sox prospects whose stock dramatically rose this season
Tyler Uberstine (RHP)
Tyler Uberstine posted a solid 3.83 ERA, .232 BAA, and 1.17 WHIP in 91 2/3 innings between Single-A and High-A in 2022. He even struck out 101 batters compared to 35 walks. Maybe he wasn’t a superstar, but this was a good first full season of professional baseball.
Due to injury, the right-handed pitcher didn’t throw a single inning in 2023, though. He only managed 4 2/3 innings (in High-A) in 2024. Therefore, it was a bit of a shock when Uberstine started the year in Double-A. It felt like the organization needed to see if he would sink or swim as he was now so far behind in terms of development (being 25 with just 38 innings in High-A). He only needed six starts in Double-A before being promoted to Triple-A.
Uberstine posted a 3.58 ERA, .244 BAA, and 1.26 WHIP in 25 appearances (21 starts) between the two levels this season. He struck out 137 batters and only walked 41 in 120 2/3 innings.
Uberstine started to dominate with the strikeout and whiff numbers following his promotion to Triple-A. And with it came increased fanfare as talking heads started to call for the 26-year-old to get a chance in Boston. That didn’t happen in 2025, but he’s now positioned much better. In fact, the Red Sox will need to place him on the 40-man roster this offseason if they don’t want to lose him in the Rule 5 Draft (something that will 100% happen if they don’t protect him).
Eduardo Rivera (LHP)
Eduardo Rivera was released by the Athletics in the middle of the 2024 campaign. That’s not a great franchise, so that felt like a bad sign for his career. But the Red Sox saw something in him.
Rivera posted a 2.48 ERA, .177 BAA, and 1.16 WHIP in 20 appearances (15 starts) between High-A and Double-A. The left-handed pitcher struck out 108 batters and walked 46 in 87 innings. Rivera was hitting 99 MPH with his fastball and showed some intriguing secondaries. He stumbled a bit after being promoted to Double-A, but had some positive outings (including six shutout innings in his last start of the season).
A massive lefty who throws hard? The Red Sox have a lot of them, and that’s not a bad thing. Rivera has bolstered his stock to become a legitimate part of that group.
Brandon Clarke (LHP)
Brandon Clarke was a fifth-round pick in the 2024 MLB draft. He didn’t appear in a minor league game until the start of the 2025 season. For that reason, I considered keeping Clarke off this list. It’s hard to judge someone’s stock when they haven’t played yet. However, Clarke felt like a special case because he rose so much that he was a top-100 prospect at one point this season.
A high-ceiling prospect, Clarke has a wide range of outcomes when looking into the future of his career. 2025 gave us a bit of an idea of what his floor is.
The left-handed pitcher posted a 4.03 ERA, .128 BAA, and a 1.16 WHIP in 14 starts between Single-A and High-A. He struck out 60 batters and walked 27 in 38 innings.
Clarke flirts with 100 on his fastball, has disgusting breaking stuff, and can rack up whiffs, but the control is his big issue. We now know Clarke truly has the stuff to be a star. His command could hold him down, but this was a phenomenal first season that made a lot of people fall in love with him.
Yhoiker Fajardo (RHP)
The Red Sox acquired Yhoiker Fajardo as their return in the trade of Cam Booser last offseason. Booser was a 32-year-old reliever (now 33) with 42 2/3 innings of decent ball under his belt. That’s not exactly indicative of high stock.
Fajardo is a 19-year-old right-handed pitcher who just had an incredible debut season in affiliate baseball. The Big Fajita posted a 2.25 ERA, .204 BAA, and 1.10 WHIP in 19 games (17 starts) between the FCL and Single-A. He fanned 83 batters compared to 27 walks in 72 innings.
Fajardo went from lottery ticket to legitimate prospect who could be flirting with top-100 status soon. He was virtually unhittable multiple times this season, and showed plenty of swing-and-miss stuff as the year went on.
Mikey Romero (2B)
Mikey Romero is the lone hitter on this list. The left-handed hitting infielder slashed .245/.300/.452 with 33 doubles, four triples, and 17 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A. He drove in 76 runs, scored 61 more, and stole five bases. Virtually everything was a career-high, and that was thanks to him playing a career-best 111 games.
Romero has become a legitimate power threat. He was consistently putting up some of the highest exit velocities in Triple-A after being promoted to the level. It’s led to his consideration as one of the better power-potential second base prospects in the sport.
The great numbers weren’t the only reason his stock rose. Seeing Romero get a healthy season under his belt raises confidence in him. There’s absolutely a world where he could become a big part of Boston’s future. However, he’s also propped himself up enough that the Red Sox could use him as a big piece in a trade for a big-name major leaguer.