5 Boston Red Sox prospects to watch for the Salem Red Sox
The Salem Red Sox are the Low-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox. In a regular year, fans would be excited to see the young prospects on the team get to work. And those young prospects would be headlined by talent from the previous year's draft.
However, 2023 is not a regular year. Salem will feature plenty of 2022 MLB draft prospects. They have someone else that makes them absolutely can't miss, though.
Don't worry - we'll get to the prospects soon enough. Although you can probably already figure out who we're talking about.
For now, we'll throw out the obligatory rules and warnings. Certain players won't be talked about simply because we aren't all that sure where they'll start the season. They have the green light if there's a strong chance they'll begin the year Low-A.
Some names won't be mentioned in the article, though. Brainer Bonaci should start in High-A, but it's not clear where he'll be yet. So, sadly he had to be skipped in the Greenville Drive article and in this one.
But also remember, there are only five players on this list. That means some names aren't going to be featured. Chase Meidroth, Luis Ravelo, Johnfrank Salazar, Yorberto Mejicano, and others also deserve love. And we're cheating by not adding Brooks Brannon and claiming he could still start in Rookie Ball.
Every minor league team in the Boston Red Sox system should be intriguing in 2023. The Salem Red Sox are a different animal, though. They feature talent top-to-bottom and have the prospect with the most realistic chance to take the world by storm this year.
If you're looking for potential, Boston's organization has plenty of it. And it all starts at the bottom, with Low-A.
Boston Red Sox shortstop prospect Mikey Romero
There was an immediate connection for Boston Red Sox 2022 first-round draft pick Mikey Romero. The shortstop was childhood friends with 2021 first-round draft pick Marcelo Mayer.
Two shortstops drafted by the same team one year apart. That could be considered a weird strategy, especially considering how good Mayer has been.
It took all of nine games in Low-A to take away most of the worries. The left-handed hitter slashed .349/.364/.581 with four doubles and three triples with the Salem Red Sox. He drove in 11 runs, scored six more, and stole one base.
Romero did all that offensively while appearing at both shortstop and second base. Showing the ability and willingness to learn new positions will endear the first-round pick to fans. Dominating at the plate definitely won't hurt, either.
2023 will give us a complete look at Romero. Last season was a nice preview, but there's only so much you can learn in nine games. Romero will start the year in Low-A with the chance to play consistently. Seeing him out there daily is reason enough to put him near the top of any "who to watch" list.
Mikey Romero has a lot of potential, but he's still very much an "unknown" for fans of the Boston Red Sox. He's expected to be a great bat with good power and average-to-better tools everywhere else. As of right now, though, it's all surrounded by question marks. We should start to get some answers this season.
Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Luis Perales
The pitching prospect depth for the Boston Red Sox is severely underrated. I get it - it's hard to get excited about a guy in Low-A that you haven't seen pitch. Luis Perales deserves all your attention, though.
The right-handed pitcher appeared in four games for the Salem Red Sox at the end of the 2022 season. He posted a 3.38 ERA, .250 BAA, and a 1.97 WHIP over 10 2/3 innings. Perales had a control problem with 11 walks but did manage 16 strikeouts.
His potential makes the 19-year-old (who turns 20 on April 14) interesting. Perales has three potentially elite pitches. His fastball already works in the mid-to-high 90s with good movement. He can confuse hitters with a high-80s changeup with a late drop and deceptive arm movement.
Finally, a curveball that's already shown to make hitters look foolish. Perales tosses it in the mid-80s with phenomenal spin and movement. This one could be a "Pitching Ninja" regular in the future.
Perales has work to do. He's only 19, the command has been an issue, and he didn't pitch more than three innings in any appearance last season (including in Rookie Ball).
That gives us some clear benchmarks to hit in 2023, though. Can Perales gain better control over any of his three pitches? When he does, good luck. Will he be able to work deeper into games as the year goes on? Can he become more consistent with his offspeed pitches?
Luis Perales is a name that could jump into the top 100 prospects sooner than many realize. That alone makes him exciting this season. However, the laid-out goals make him one of the most intriguing names for the Boston Red Sox in 2023.
Boston Red Sox outfield prospect Roman Anthony
Mikey Romero was far from the only exciting prospect the Boston Red Sox drafted in 2022. Using their second-round compensatory pick, Boston snatched up outfielder Roman Anthony.
Anthony slashed .189/.279/.243 with two doubles in 10 Low-A games last season. He drove in five runs, scored two more, and walked more times (5) than he struck out (4).
Those aren't the best-looking numbers. A 10-game sample isn't much to go off of, though. Anthony is a left-handed bat with ridiculous power potential. Anthony is more than just a 30-plus home run talent, though.
The outfielder grades out pretty well across the board. He has the potential to produce good averages while mashing plenty of home runs. His speed is solid, and his defense gets the job done.
Possibly the crazy part of all of this is his age. Anthony won't turn 19 until May 13. So while all that potential is there, it's clear there can still be a ton of growth too.
Due to his age and inexperience in the minors, you shouldn't expect Anthony to dominate from the outset. 2023 will be about seeing him make adjustments and improvements. And if you get to see a couple of moonshots while he works on all that, it's a bonus.
The Boston Red Sox organization has a lot of raw prospects that could take steps forward in 2023. Roman Anthony's power stands out above the rest, though. His potential to be solid in every other category makes him more than an "interesting" prospect. There's legitimate potential there, and it will be fun to see what he can do in year one.
Boston Red Sox pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz
A lot of people are rightfully excited about Luis Perales. He isn't the only 19-year-old pitching prospect primed to breakout in the Boston Red Sox system. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz might not get the same attention, but he deserves it.
Rodriguez-Cruz appeared in just two games for the Salem Red Sox last season. He posted a 1.50 ERA, .143 BAA, 1.00 WHIP, and six strikeouts over six innings in Low-A. The right-handed pitcher didn't allow a home run in 38 1/3 innings between Rookie Ball and Low-A.
We only have a small sample size of the 2021 fourth-round draft pick. Rodriguez-Cruz has shown plenty of raw potential to get excited about. He possesses three solid pitches while working on a fourth.
Rodriguez-Cruz has a fastball that sits in the low-90s. It wouldn't be surprising if he could bump the velocity up in the coming years, though. He's already managed to boost it a little bit. If he can work on the command and add velo, this could quickly be a great pitch.
He also has a curveball that works in the mid-to-high 70s with a fantastic sweeping break. Rodriguez-Curz already has a strong command of the pitch and has shown he can use it to produce ugly swings.
Next is a changeup that looks like a fastball out of his hand. The pitch sits around the low-80s and features a sharp drop at the end. It is a pitch that will confuse hitters and one that he already shows a good command of.
Finally, Rodriguez-Cruz is working on a slider. Definitely, the pitch that needs the most work, but there's something there. It works in the mid-80s and has a more horizontal break than the curveball. Command and consistency need improvement, but he's shown the ability to snap them off.
Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz only has six innings of work in Low-A heading into the 2023 season. We'll get to see a lot more of the Boston Red Sox pitching prospect this year, though. And it wouldn't be surprising if he finds his way onto everyone's radar and hearts.
Boston Red Sox outfield prospect Miguel Bleis
There might not be a more exciting prospect to watch in baseball than Miguel Bleis. I'm not talking about the Boston Red Sox organization but throughout the entire MLB and MiLB.
The outfielder hasn't even appeared in Low-A yet, and the hype is already out of this world. To be fair, he would have made his Low-A debut at the end of the 2022 season if not for an injury.
Bleis has every tool in his repertoire. The right-handed hitter slashed .301/.353/.542 with 14 doubles, four triples, and five home runs in 40 games (153 at-bats) in Rookie Ball last season. He drove in 27 runs, scored 28 more, and stole 18 bases.
Bleis has legitimate power to go along with a good swing that should create a lot of hits. His speed is an obvious plus, giving him the potential for some 30-steal seasons. Defensively, Bleis could be a gold glover in the outfield with a fantastic arm. There really aren't any major weaknesses in his game to point out.
Obviously, Bleis is only 19 (he turned 19 on March 1) and hasn't played above Rookie Ball yet. So there is a lot of guesswork going on here. That's what makes Bleis so interesting heading into 2023, though.
Boston Red Sox fans haven't seen any of Bleis outside of a few highlights and minimal Spring Training action. Despite that, the outfielder finds himself the most hyped prospect in the organization in a long time. We get our first extended look at him in 2023, and it will be a lot of fun.