Top Prospect Connelly Early Shines for Red Sox in MLB Debut

We’re firmly in the prime prospect promotion time of year, and the Boston Red Sox just had one of their top young guns make his MLB debut and utterly dominate the Athletics. Left-hander Connelly Early took the mound in Tuesday night’s contest for Boston and made the A’s look like a team that fits right into their minor league ballpark.

Recently we’ve seen the Chicago Cubs promote Owen Caissie, Moises Ballesteros, while the New York Mets have also dominated the headlines with their promotions of Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong, and Brandon Sproat.

Each of these players are featured on Just Baseball’s most recent top 100 ranking, with Caisse (No. 41) being the highest ranked and Sproat (No. 88) representing the lowest-ranked of the bunch.

In Early’s case, he did not make the cut on the top 100. However, he was featured in Aram Leighton’s top 15 Red Sox prospects list from April of this year. The southpaw was the No. 8 Red Sox prospect behind the likes of Roman Anthony (No. 1), Kristian Campbell (No. 2), Marcelo Mayer (No. 3), and Jhostynxon Garcia (No. 7), all of whom we’ve seen in the major leagues at various points this year.

Connelly Early Dominates in MLB Debut

Early, 23, joined the Red Sox as a fifth-round draft pick back in 2023. Since then, he’s made quick work of Boston’s minor league system and was all the way up to Triple-A in just his second full season as a professional.

As he carved his way through the minors, Early was always a high-strikeout arm that excelled at keeping the bases empty and keeping the ball in the ballpark. Prior to his promotion, he was 10-3 in 18 starts (and three relief appearances) split between Double- and Triple-A this year. In 100.1 combined innings, he struck out 132 (11.8 K/9) while sporting a dazzling 6.4 H/9 and 0.4 HR/9 to boot.

Tuesday night against the A’s, Early showed exactly why he skyrocketed through the ranks.

In five innings of work, he struck out 11 batters while walking just one, allowing five hits and zero runs in the process. With this start, he became just the ninth pitcher in MLB history to strike out 11 or more batters without allowing a run in his MLB debut.

Early threw a total of six different pitches, throwing a four-seam fastball, curveball, changeup, slider, and sinker each over 12% of the time in his outing. His fastball comfortably sat in the mid-90s (topping out at 96.6) all night, but he kept the A’s off balance with his pitch mix.

Tunneling masterclass from Connelly Early here. Hard gyro slider at 87 MPH then an 80 MPH curveball getting -15.5 and -11.5 starting right above the same location. https://t.co/DIQ2oVl3Em pic.twitter.com/NbeuIWI9wF

— Aram Leighton (@AramLeighton8) September 10, 2025

Early joins Garrett Crochet and fellow prospect Payton Tolle to give the Red Sox rotation three left-handed starters. Crochet is one of the best in the business, while Tolle only just recently made his MLB debut himself. This trio has the potential to be lethal for many years to come.

Looking ahead to next season, the Red Sox have Lucas Giolito set to hit the open market, as he has a $19 million mutual option for the 2026 campaign that he’ll surely decline. Steven Matz, Justin Wilson, and Dustin May are also unrestricted free agents, and while two of the three aren’t starting pitchers, the point is that there are going to be some innings to fill for next year. Early is looking like a solid candidate to soak up some of those, especially if he continues to pitch like he did on Tuesday.

Scouting Report

For more on Early and what Red Sox fans can expect from him moving forward, here’s Aram’s writeup on the southpaw from April of this year:

8. Connelly Early – LHP – (Double-A)

Height/Weight: 6’3″, 200 | Bat/Throw: L/L | 5th Round (151), 2023 (BOS) | ETA: 2026

Fastball	Cutter	Slider	Changeup	Curveball	Command	FV
50/50	45/45	50/50	60/65	50/50	40/50	45+

An athletic lefty, Early has seen his velocity tick up since being drafted while benefitting from some tweaks to his arsenal. Early is a strong breakout candidate as he enters his age 23 season.

Arsenal

Early utilizes five offerings that work well off of each other from a low-three quarters release that can create a slight cross-fire feel for hitters. His fastball has climbed from the low 90s at UVA to 92-94 MPH in his first pro season to 93-96 MPH in the early going of 2025. The ride and run plays up from his release point, but his fastball command lags behind his feel for his secondaries, particularly his changeup.

Early’s changeup feel is quite impressive spotting it consistently at the bottom third of the zone, picking up plenty of whiff and chase below. He has landed it for a strike nearly 70% of the time as a pro, throwing it more than his fastball to righties and still mixing it in effectively left on left.

The slider and curveball both look like average offerings for Early, with the mid 80s slider being leaned on about 5% more frequently. He has tightened up his low 80s curveball, making it a more effective pitch to bury under the barrels to righties in order to take them off of the changeup, fastball cadence. He will also mix in a mid 80s cutter that is an effective taste-breaker.

Outlook

Early will need to hold his velocity uptick into longer outings as well as deeper into the season to add some more validity to the exciting early results in 2025, but his finish to his 2024 season was a strong indicator that there could be even more to be excited about in the southpaw’s second taste of Double-A. He will need to refine his fastball command further, to reach his potential of a No. 4 starter, though it is easy to envision at least a fringe No. 5 starter with the floor of a solid depth option who could help the Red Sox somewhat soon.