Red Sox 23-Year-Old Turning Heads in Viral Strikeout Clip

It's a Boston Red Sox team with an embarrassment of riches when Connelly Early doesn't project to be in the opening day rotation.

The 23-year-old Early made his major league debut in early September, but he was so good in his four regular-season starts, and the Red Sox so injured, that he wound up taking the ball for Boston in a do-or-die game against the New York Yankees in the Wild Card Series.

Now that Ranger Suárez, Sonny Gray, and Johan Oviedo have arrived as reinforcements, many project that Early will begin the year in Triple-A. But the anecdotes we've been receiving about his offseason have made it impossible not to be over the moon about his potential.

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Early's velocity commands attention

Most of what we've heard about Early was that he was gaining weight and throwing harder than ever, which is a pretty scary sign for hitters, considering he already had a well-developed six-pitch mix and excellent command.

In a semi-viral social media clip that went out on Tuesday night, Early could be seen dominating YouTuber and former minor-league baseball player Eric Sim in a live at-bat. But what caught the eye of the Red Sox fans who have already seen it was his velocity.

I Faced Boston Red Sox Pitcher Connelly Early.

He was Sitting 95MPH at 8:30AM…Diabolical@ConnellyEarly pic.twitter.com/dbEod85oom
— KingofJUCO (@KingofJUCO) January 27, 2026

Early throws two 95.2 mph fastballs in the clip above, already well above the 93.7 mph he averaged in the majors this fall, and that's off an indoor mound without the full adrenaline that comes with pitching in a real game. Also, as Sim highlighted in the clip, it was quite early in the morning.

And in fact, as Sim reported to Tyler Milliken of the "Section 10" podcast in an aggregation of the clip, the youngster ramped his velocity up to 96.5 mph off camera in the same morning session.

Got upto 96.5mph on a indoor mound at 8:30am on a random January day…dude is gonna be a problem.
— KingofJUCO (@KingofJUCO) January 27, 2026

Obviously, Sim is not major league competition. He looked completely clueless on Early's changeup and slider, and the latter wasn't even particularly well located. He was also using a lightweight youth travel ball bat, which was meant to give him a competitive advantage.

However, the fact that Early is throwing this hard, this far out from the season, signals that his velocity should be a newfound weapon once April arrives. And if he's consistently sitting 95-plus with the arsenal of secondary offerings at his disposal, he might be something close to an ace in relatively short order.

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