Amidst trades for Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Caleb Durbin, the Boston Red Sox's prospect-for-prospect swap with the Washington Nationals got mostly swept under the rug. However, despite costing the organization an electric arm in Luis Perales, Jake Bennett is already starting to make a name for himself this spring.
“There’s a lot to love on Jake Bennett,” Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey told MassLive's Chris Cotillo. “Easy to work with, trained really hard in the offseason, put himself in a good spot. We’ll look to build the engine bigger and faster and stronger and there’s a lot of upside there. He’s a guy who flies through the zone, fills it up and we’ll build up the stuff a little bit.”
Bailey did say that, like fellow left-handed pitching prospects Connelly Early and Payton Tolle, the team plans to keep Bennett stretched out at Triple-A this season. If the Red Sox want to win this trade over the long haul, that's the correct decision.
Trading Perales was just one step in a long line of reshuffling the starting pitcher depth chart this offseason in Boston, and it's no surprise that the Nationals made a play for right-hander seeing as former Red Sox assistant GM Paul Toboni is now their president of baseball operations.
Jake Bennett arms Red Sox with three high-upside lefty pitching prospects
While Perales has electric stuff in his own right (he hit 100 mph on the radar gun in 2025), Bennett appears to have less reliever risk, and his huge frame (6'6") and elite extension form exactly the kind of profile Craig Breslow and his front office have targeted from young pitchers.
Already 25 years old and on the 40-man roster, the former second-round pick dominated in High-A and Double-A last year, logging a 2.27 ERA and 2.96 FIP across 75 1/3 innings (18 starts). The Red Sox's primary job will be to build up his stamina to handle a major-league starter's workload; the team already knows he has the frame to handle it.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Bennett's track record is that he's actually flashed excellent control, a rarity among big-bodied prospects. His 6.4% walk rate in 2025 was more or less in line with his career averages, though his strikeout rate did fall to 21.5% (a significant drop-off from 2023, when it sat at 28.3%). The good news is that he's got a well-rounded arsenal, highlighted by a changeup that most scouts agree is his best pitch. Combined with a fastball that thrives thanks to his uncanny extension off the mound, there's a lot of intrigue packed into this oversized package.
Now that he's already gained Bailey's attention in spring camp, don't be surprised if Bennett joins the likes of Early and Tolle in Worcester at the onset of the regular season, with an eye on his MLB debut some time down the road in 2026.