It was a seven-inning exhibition game with no three-batter minimum, or restrictions on pitchers exiting and re-taking the mound, allowed to end in a tie, with no chance of going to extras.
It wouldn’t count towards players’ stat lines or the club’s spring training record. Which, of course, counts for nothing regardless.
But for the Red Sox, who’ve spent the last half-decade prioritizing rebuilding and transforming their farm system, the inaugural Spring Breakout game on Saturday afternoon counted the way intangibles often do in baseball. It was a chance to flex their elite talent, to unleash their top prospects on the Braves and see how the Sox stars of tomorrow measured up against the organization that’s developed such talents as Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, and Spencer Strider.
So when Boston bested Atlanta 7-2, it felt important.
Starting with Wikelman Gonzalez, who blanked the visiting Braves for three innings. He’s still honing his command, as evidenced by the three walks he issued, but the organization’s top pitching prospect battled through. His got his lone strikeout in the top of the first, worked around a leadoff walk and stolen base in the second, and with solid defense backing him up, pitched a 1-2-3 third.
Richard Fitts, one of the prospects acquired from the Yankees in December’s Alex Verdugo trade, pitched the following three frames. He struggled at first, allowing two earned runs on a pair of hits and a walk in the fourth, then buckled down. He faced the minimum in each of the following two innings, opening the fifth with back-to-back swinging strikeouts, and finishing the sixth with another. Luis Guerrero pitched a scoreless seventh, working around a leadoff ground-rule double and walk to get the final three outs of the game.
The Sox put their blue-chip ‘Big Three’ at the top of the lineup. Roman Anthony didn’t get a hit in his two-at bats, but he showed off plate discipline beyond his 19 years, drawing two walks, stealing a base, and scoring a run.
Marcelo Mayer went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, but he was selective with pitches; he saw 22 pitches over his four at-bats, including an eight-pitch battle in the bottom of the third. The organization’s No. 1 prospect also looked solid on defense, making some impressive plays at shortstop.
Kyle Teel, the organization’s most promising catching prospect since Jason Varitek, got the first hit of the game, and finished the afternoon 2-for-2 with a double, run, and RBI. After catching Gonzalez, Teel told NESN’s Tom Caron that “Wiki” is so athletic that he “looks like a shortstop” during pitcher fielding practices (PFPs).
Ceddanne Rafaela looked more like a Major Leaguer than a top prospect. He clobbered a three-run homer in the third, his fourth round-tripper of the preseason, though this game won’t be added to his spring stat line.
Nick Yorke, Miguel Bleis, and Chase Meidroth contributed standout moments as well. Yorke went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Bleis drew a walk, scored a run, and he and Eddinson Paulino stole a base apiece.
The Braves prospects managed just three hits all afternoon, and only scored in the fourth. The Sox prospects collected seven runs on nine hits, and scored in every inning from the second through the fifth.
“It’s been a blast,” Mayer told Caron during the broadcast. He described the group as “super-talented” with a tight-knit bond. There are “about seven” players living in his house now, including Anthony, and several more hanging around on any given day, just to keep the good times rolling.
“I think we have a lot of talent across the board, and we’re really excited for what the future holds,” Mayer said.
The future looked bright indeed on Saturday. However, the inaugural Spring Breakout game was also a reminder of how much stock the Red Sox are putting in the future (especially compared to present effort). They’ve put a significant amount of eggs in the Big Three’s basket, with members of the front office publicly declaring them the future of winning in Boston. In other words, the pressure is on and high.
Such promising talent in the pipeline doesn’t absolve ownership of imposing payroll limits either, especially while raising Fenway ticket prices. The narrative, or perception that there hasn’t been enough focus on the here-and-now is based strongly enough in facts that Rafael Devers called out the powers that be last month for “thinking more in the future.”
It was fitting, then, that moments after the prospects cruised to victory, the Orioles walked off the big-league-ish Sox in Sarasota.