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