Hunter Dobbins’ career has taken some time to get off the ground. His promising sophomore season at Texas Tech was cut short due to the pandemic, and he never got a chance to take the mound as a junior after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Still, he showed enough to convince the Red Sox to take him in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, and since returning to the mound last summer he’s lived up to that promise.
Dobbins has been among the fastest rising pitching prospects in the Red Sox system this year, and after dominating High-A Greenville he was recently promoted to Double-A and looked great in his first start with Portland.
Now fully healthy and barely a year removed from his professional debut, Dobbins said his journey has been a whirlwind but he’s excited about what lies ahead.
“It’s definitely flown by but my body is ready for it,” Dobbins said prior to Portland’s game in New Hampshire on Thursday. “I’m ready for the challenge and ready to get after it.”
Upon earning a promotion to Greenville out of spring training, Dobbins made short work of the opposing High-A hitters. The 23-year-old righty posted a 2.63 ERA in seven starts, striking out 44 while walking only five in 41 innings.
That led to a swift call-up to Portland, and last Friday he allowed just one run on three hits over five innings in the Sea Dogs’ 9-5 win over the Reading Fightin Phils. He did walk three while striking out five, but overall it was an encouraging debut.
“You can see why we’re high on this kid,” said Sea Dogs manager Chad Epperson. “Obviously he’s gone through the injury, but he’s showing no signs of being hurt and what we saw the other night was very impressive.”
Dobbins returned from Tommy John surgery last June and described his experience last season with Low-A Salem as trying to get healthy and feel like himself again. He faced an unrelated setback during spring training when he began experiencing vertigo, which halted his throwing progression for three weeks, but that wound up being a “fluky” thing that he was able to put behind him.
“I don’t wish that on anybody,” Dobbins said. “It was definitely a weird feeling, but we should be good.”
This season Dobbins has flashed a mid-90s fastball and an impressive curveball, and he’s also added a new splitter while tweaking his slider to maximize the effectiveness of his pitch mix. Though not currently considered among Boston’s top prospects, Dobbins has been among a number of intriguing arms who have taken a big step forward in 2023.
If he keeps pitching well in Portland over the next few weeks, don’t be surprised if you start hearing his name come up more often.
Despite emerging as the breakout star of the Red Sox organization last season, Ceddanne Rafaela started the season back at Double-A so he could continue working on his plate discipline, a potentially fatal weakness in his game.
Three months later, Rafaela is finally one step from the big leagues.
Rafaela was promoted this past week and made his Triple-A debut on Thursday, hitting a solo home run during the WooSox doubleheader against Buffalo. Prior to his promotion Rafaela was batting .294 with six home runs, 37 RBI and 30 stolen bases in 60 games, and since the start of June he’d been batting .364.
Clearly he was ready for a bigger challenge.
Shane Drohan, who was called up to Worcester after an exceptional start at Portland, got off to a rocky start but has begun to find his rhythm at the next level. Since the start of June he’s posted a 4.21 ERA over 25.1 innings in five starts, and last time out he threw four scoreless innings in a 9-2 WooSox win.
Wilyer Abreu, an outfielder on the 40-man roster, recently came off the injured list and is 5 for 23 in his first six games back, and two other 40-man prospects are currently on the shelf.
Infielder Enmanuel Valdez was placed on the injured list Thursday with left thumb inflammation, and flamethrowing righty Bryan Mata has been out since May 10 with right shoulder inflammation.
A Red Sox source said Thursday that Mata is making progress and they expect he will pitch again in Worcester this season.
Dobbins isn’t the only standout who’s moved up to Portland recently. Fellow Greenville call-up Isaac Coffey was also recently promoted and after a rough first start bounced back in a big way on Thursday.
Coffey, who’d posted a 2.83 ERA in 11 starts at High-A, shut down the New Hampshire Fisher Cats with six shutout innings in Thursday’s 2-0 win, and Luis Guerrero earned his 13th save to drop his ERA for the season to 1.19. Brian Van Belle has continued his excellent season as well, going 4-0 in June with a 1.50 ERA in 24 innings.
Since making his Double-A debut, Marcelo Mayer has struggled to get going, batting .169 through his first 22 games at Portland, but he’s also ripped five home runs. He was recently named to the Futures Game along with Drohan and Nick Yorke, who has continued his strong bounce back campaign and is hitting .283 with nine home runs at Double-A.
Fellow infielder Chase Meidroth hit .292 with a .410 on-base percentage in June, and first baseman Alex Binelas found his groove after a rocky start, batting .296 with four home runs in the month after batting .180 with three homers through April and May.
Outfielder Roman Anthony, one of Boston’s top draft picks last summer, has quickly emerged as among the top prospects in the organization and at 19 years old recently became the youngest position player in all of High-A following his promotion from Salem.
He wasted no time making his mark once he got there.
Anthony hit five home runs in his first 13 games with Greenville and came into Friday batting .313 with nearly as many walks (11) as strikeouts (13) following his promotion. Anthony now ranks as Boston’s No. 9 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, and will be worth following closely as he moves up through the minor league ranks.
Blaze Jordan, Boston’s No. 10 prospect, has also been tearing it up and could be in line for a promotion to Portland at some point soon. The 20-year-old corner infielder is hitting .316 with 10 home runs and a .979 OPS on the season and since the start of June is batting .329.
Following Dobbins and Coffey’s promotions, Greenville’s starting rotation is in a period of flux but Wikelman Gonzalez, Boston’s No. 11 prospect, is looking good. The 21-year-old righty has bounced back from a rough start and since the start of June has posted a 3.10 ERA in four starts. He’s also struck out 87 over 52.1 innings.
The Red Sox suffered a big blow this month when outfielder Miguel Bleis, one of the club’s most exciting and promising young prospects, was lost for the season after undergoing left shoulder surgery.
The good news is one of the organization’s other top prospects may finally be nearing a return.
Mikey Romero, Boston’s top selection in last summer’s draft, has begun a rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League and is expected to make his debut with the Salem Red Sox sometime soon. The 19-year-old shortstop has missed the first three months with a back issue and last season batted .349 in a nine-game cameo with Salem.
Cutter Coffey, a second-round pick from last year, has begun to turn things around after a slow start and is batting .247 with three home runs and an .808 OPS in June.
Pitching-wise, Luis Perales has enjoyed a terrific month, posting a 2.37 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 19 innings over his past four starts. Perales, a righty from Venezuela, ranks as Boston’s No. 12 prospect according to MLB Pipeline.