Chaim Bloom’s short tenure as chief baseball officer continues to pay dividends for the Boston Red Sox. 2023 fifth-round pick Connelly Early struck out 11 over five innings in a 6-0 win against the A’s on Tuesday. Early’s 11 punch outs tied Don Aase’s mark from 1977 for the most strikeouts by a Red Sox pitcher in his major league debut.
As the Sox battle for the division and an October playoff spot, Craig Breslow is turning to the farm system to bolster the roster for the stretch run.
To Breslow’s credit, even before the relatively quiet trade deadline, he added big names in the offseason that helped cover holes in the roster. Before injuries thinned the staff, Breslow had built a rotation nine or 10 deep with MLB-caliber arms, assuming you count2025 Walker Buehler as part of that mix. With injuries to Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, and, most recently, Dustin May, Alex Cora and the Red Sox have had to dig deep into their reserves to keep the rotation afloat.
Payton Tolle, Early, and Kyle Harrison were the prospects who answered the call. Anyone following Boston’s affiliates this season has seen their names pop up regularly after strong outings. Early’s stock rose sharply over the summer, and when May went down, Breslow didn’t hesitate to bring him up to fill the open spot in the rotation.
The Red Sox have a lot riding on Connelly Early's success
Watch all 11 Ks from Connelly Early’s debut 🔥
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Early opened the season with Double-A Portland but was quickly promoted to Triple-A Worcester after just 15 outings, posting a 2.51 ERA. He needed only six starts there before earning his much-deserved call-up to the majors.
Breslow has emphasized pitching development, and Early is the latest product of Boston’s emerging pitching pipeline. His fastball is the foundation of his arsenal, but his curveball is a disappearing act that generated a 54.5% whiff rate in his debut. Early hurled 90 pitches over five tough innings, emerging unscathed with zero allowed runs.
Early’s debut put him in rare company, becoming just the third pitcher in MLB history to start his career with a game of 0 runs, 1 or fewer walks, and double-digit strikeouts, joining Steve Woodard in 1997 and Hall of Famer Juan Marichal in 1960.
Boston’s aptly nicknamed ‘PigPen’ is anchored by All-Stars like Garrett Crochet, with young, blistering talent such as Early and Tolle rounding out the rotation. Both rookies are poised to benefit from the guidance of the veteran arms as October looms, a boost the Red Sox rotation will need in the postseason push.