The Boston Red Sox made one of the biggest moves of the trade deadline when they acquired catcher Adley Rutschman from the Baltimore Orioles. Unsurprisingly, Rutschman didn’t come cheap, though. The Red Sox had to send away multiple top prospects, including right-handed pitchers Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon.
Due to that, the Red Sox lost their top two pitching prospects in the organization. Now the only ones in MLB Pipeline’s top 10 are Juan Valera (No. 5), Sadbiel Delzine (No. 6), Marcus Phillips (No. 8), and John Holobetz (No. 10).
Valera is in High-A and out for the foreseeable future. He got Tommy John surgery earlier this season. Delzine has impressed so far, but has only made two starts in Single-A. Phillips is in High-A and struggling with command (although I do love his stuff).
That leaves us with Holobetz, the only one above High-A. In fact, he recently made his Triple-A debut. With the Pottstown kid suddenly the highest-ranked pitching prospect in shouting distance, who is he?
After Adley Rutschman trade, John Holobetz is the closest top Red Sox pitching prospect to the major leagues
The Red Sox first acquired Holobetz as the Player to be Named Later in the Quinn Priester trade. It didn’t take long for him to ascend the ladder to Double-A and become an intriguing prospect to watch.
Holobetz isn’t going to wow you with his pitch mix. He has a solid fastball and a good sinker, but doesn’t break radars, sitting in the low-90s. The right-handed pitcher has okay secondaries, but nothing that feels like it can be game-changing or anything. That being said, the changeup intrigues me.
What Holobetz does have is phenomenal control. In 124 2/3 innings last season, he posted an 8.66 K/9 and a 1.44 BB/9. The walk rate has jumped this season up to a still very strong 2.66 BB/9. However, the K/9 also took a significant jump, up to 10.52 K/9.
The 24-year-old posted a 4.33 ERA, .236 BAA, and 1.22 WHIP in 17 games (15 starts) in Double-A this season. He struck out 93 batters and walked 25 in 79 innings. Holobetz made his Triple-A debut last week, allowing one run on four hits over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out six batters without walking any.
The Red Sox pitching depth is in a weird spot. They have potential reinforcements coming. Garrett Crochet is still a ways from a return to action. Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford have been gone all year, too. In Triple-A, Holobetz could be considered one of the top options if Boston needs a spot-start.
So what should you expect from Holobetz? Likely nothing too flashy. He’s absolutely ramped up the swing-and-miss stuff this season. It feels like he’s done so by leaning on his fantastic command, though. That might not work for a ton of punchouts in the Majors. However, you can expect him to get you through five-plus innings and limit baserunners.
Holobetz is the exact type of pitcher who would likely get a lot of “WHO?” from the fans when he’s promoted. It wouldn’t take him long to have fans loving him as a back-end rotation option, though.
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