Luis Perales - SP
The Boston Red Sox have more pitching prospects than they get credit for. To be fair, not a lot of their top arms are working in Double-A and Triple-A at the moment.
Their best pitching prospect is knocking on the Double-A door, though. Luis Perales has electric stuff. He possesses a dominant fastball and some intriguing offspeed pitches (including a curveball and a changeup).
The right-handed pitcher posted a 3.91 ERA, .230 BAA, and 1.42 WHIP between Single-A and High-A. He struck out 115 batters compared to 50 walks in 89 2/3 innings.
Perales doesn't turn 21 until April 14. The advanced pitch repertoire and ability to miss bats at his age are absolutely terrifying.
It's tough to put pitchers under Double-A on any list like this. You can't really evaluate a pitcher properly as a Major League prospect in Single-A and High-A. Look at how many pitchers run through hitters at those levels before hitting major roadblocks in Double-A and Triple-A.
There are far too many inexperienced hitters who aren't MLB talents at those levels. Hitters that you can put away with ease if you have good enough stuff. But when you get to higher levels, just having a filthy pitch isn't going to let an arm dominate anymore.
With that in mind, I could only go with one pitcher below Double-A. We went with Perales because he's got the highest ceiling and is knocking on that Double-A door. Yordanny Monegro deserves a shoutout here as well, though.
The Boston Red Sox have a few intriguing pitching prospects in their system. Luis Perales is the ace of the bunch, however. If one of them is going to turn into the best pitcher in baseball, it feels like Perales right now.
This is a constant point made in Boston media. The Red Sox have not had a homegrown stud pitcher since Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. Brayan Bello is at that point now, but he's barely played a season, so it's fair to want more.
Luis Perales gives Boston a shot at another from-the-farm ace. Let him cook.