NASHVILLE — Recently the Red Sox minor league pitching pipeline has slowed to a trickle, and coming into the offseason only two of Boston’s top 15 prospects according to MLB Pipeline were pitchers.
New chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has vowed to change that, and late Tuesday night he brought in some pretty significant reinforcements.
By shipping Alex Verdugo off to the New York Yankees, Breslow got back three right-handed pitchers in return. Greg Weissert, a 28-year-old reliever who made 17 appearances in the majors last season; Richard Fitts, a former sixth-round pick out of Auburn in 2021 and the Yankees’ No. 12 prospect; and Nicholas Judice, a 6-foot-8 mountain of a man who was an eighth round pick this past summer and has yet to make his professional debut.
One in particular could become a real difference maker.
Fitts, the most notable return in the deal, is the reigning Eastern League (Double-A) Pitcher of the Year and a guy who should immediately slot in as one of Boston’s top pitching prospects. The 23-year-old right-hander is coming off a season in which he posted a 3.48 ERA with 163 strikeouts and 43 walks over 152.2 innings at Double-A, and Breslow said they’re confident he can be a starter at the MLB level.
“A fastball that has some unique shape, some unique characteristics and a swing-and-miss slider, and on top of that an elite strike thrower who had a ton of success over the course of 150-plus innings in Double-A last year,” Breslow said. “So wouldn’t want to discount the workload he’s been able to take on.”
Following news of the trade, MLB Pipeline immediately ranked Fitts as Boston’s No. 10 prospect, sliding him right between Wikelman Gonzalez and Luis Perales, the club’s top two incumbent minor league pitchers. Though Weissert and Judice aren’t viewed quite that highly by the scouting community, Breslow said each offers a lot to like.
“Weissert is a guy who has a track record of missing bats and missing bats at the upper levels,” Breslow said. “He’s had some success at the big leagues and feel like there’s still some development and growth in front of him.”
“Then with Judice, he’s a guy our amateur department had identified heading into the draft last year and in a lot of ways a bit of a ball of clay,” Breslow continued. “He’s 6-foot-8, big arm, big fastball and someone we’re excited to get into the development infrastructure.”
Time will tell if the three ultimately emerge as big league contributors, but given the state of Boston’s pitching pipeline the three should jumpstart Breslow’s efforts to produce more homegrown arms.
“The way to build that development pipeline is to get some high upside arms that we can put into our system,” Breslow said. “We feel they are some who are ready to contribute in the short-term, and obviously Weissert a guy who has had some success in the big league recently.”