Inside The Red Sox

Red Sox Lose Pair Of Promising Pitching Prospects In Rule 5 Draft

Boston lost some depth for the second year in a row
Scott Neville|
Red Sox Lose Pair Of Promising Pitching Prospects In Rule 5 Draft
Red Sox Lose Pair Of Promising Pitching Prospects In Rule 5 Draft

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Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are starting to get accustomed to losing intriguing pitching prospects when the Major League Baseball Rule 5 Draft comes along. 

This year was no different. 

The Red Sox lost left-handed starting pitcher Shane Drohan (Boston's No. 19 overall prospect) to the Chicago White Sox with the fourth overall pick in the draft. Two picks later, the St. Louis Cardinals nabbed right-handed reliever Ryan Fernandez.

At one point last season, Drohan appeared to be the best pitching prospect in the Red Sox's system. The 24-year-old started off his 2023 campaign going 5-0 with a 1.32 ERA, 36-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .161 batting average against and a 0.82 WHIP in 34 innings for Double-A Portland. 

During that time, he appeared to be a lock to make the Red Sox's 40-man roster this winter. Unfortunately, he struggled mightily upon being called up to Triple-A Worcester.

Drohan went 5-7 with a 6.47 ERA, 93-to-63 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .293 batting average against and a 1.87 WHIP in 89 innings for the WooSox. All of a sudden, Drohan was walking seemingly half of his batters faced and giving up a lot of hits. 

Fernandez's story was eerily similar. The 25-year-old opened the year posting a 1.77 ERA in 20 1/3 innings for the Sea Dogs while showing an upper-90s fastball and strong overall pitch mix. Upon his promotion to Triple-A, he, like Drohan, crumbled. 

The right-hander posted a 6.16 ERA in 30 2/3 innings for the WooSox due to inflated contact rates and an overall drastic increase in baserunners allowed.

Both players still have potential to develop into impact arms but their second halves were poor enough to the point where Boston did not feel the need to protect them from the draft. 

We'll see if these departures will come back to bite them or, like last year, turn out to be fairly irrelevant transactions.

More MLB: Red Sox Appear Strongly In Mix For Gold Glove Catcher With Multiple Suitors

Published
Scott Neville
SCOTT NEVILLE

Scott Neville covers the Boston Red Sox for Sports Illustrated's new page "Inside The Red Sox." Before starting "Inside The Red Sox", Neville attended Merrimack College, where he earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Communication and Media with a minor in Marketing. Neville spent all four years with Merrimack's radio station WMCK, where he grew as a radio/podcast host and producer.  His propensity for being in front of a microphone eventually expanded to film, where he produced multiple short films alongside his then-roommate and current co-worker Stephen Mottram. On a journey that began as a way to receive easy credits via film classes, he received a call from "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" star Charlie Day. Day advised him to make a feature-length film, which he completed his senior year. While writing the film, Neville completed an internship for United Way as part of their NFL Partnership Program. Neville ran the blog for a team of interns and hosted an internet show called "United Way's NFL Partnership Series" where he interviewed NFL alumni. After college Neville wrote for SB Nation's "Over The Monster," a Red Sox sister site of the flagship brand. His work would eventually lead him to a job as a content producer with NESN, where he would cover all sports. After developing as a writer with the top regional network in the world, he was given the opportunity to join the Sports Illustrated Media Group in his current endeavor as the publisher of "Inside The Red Sox." The successful launch and quick rise of "Inside The Red Sox" led to Neville joining the Baseball Essential ownership group, a national baseball site under SIMG. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottNeville46 Email: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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