As always, the trade deadline overshadowed everything else at the end of July, and so we’re a little later than usual with our monthly look back at the top performers in the Red Sox minor league system. Some of the usual upper-level pitching standouts didn’t make the list this month, in part because so many of them were helping the big league team. There were a lot of strong position player performances, though, including some relevant July numbers that technically came in a different organization but now impact the Red Sox system. And while some names also featured in our June list (and in the case of center field, our April and May lists as well!), there are also a lot of new arrivals here.
Catcher
- Stephen Scott
Double-A Portland
25 years old
In July: .269/.429/.507
Since moving up to Double-A in late June, Scott has split his time pretty evenly between catcher and designated hitter (Portland has three catchers to work into games). Scott’s OPS so far is third-best on the team behind breakout prospect Ceddanne Rafaela and since-promoted Devlin Granberg. Scott walked more than he struck out last month, and he showed some power with four doubles and four homers. The Red Sox have stuck with his conversion to catcher and have yet to use him at first base or an outfield corner this season.
Worth mentioning: Another good month for Nathan Hickey who had a .413 on-base percentage in High A, but he also played in only 11 games and wound up on the I.L. after one game in August. … Called up briefly on the day Christian Vázquez was traded, Ronaldo Hernández has been hitting for power in Triple A with .488 slugging percentage in July. Good bat, but it’s worth wondering how much the Red Sox trust him behind the plate. … Scott’s Double-A teammate Kole Cottam had a nice month at the plate with an .830 OPS. He’s been playing some first base, too.
First base
- Niko Kavadas
High-A Greenville
23 years old
In July: .288/.463/.593
This guy just keeps hitting. His July wasn’t as insane as his June (he slugged .951 last month; that’s a high standard) but he did hit six more home runs while keeping his walk-to-strikeout ratio (16-to-20) pretty close to even. And it’s worth remembering he spent all of July at a higher level, having been promoted from Low A to High A in late June. It’s fair to be skeptical of first-base-only prospects because they have to hit a ton to stay relevant, but Kavadas is doing exactly that in his first full year of pro ball.
Worth mentioning: Welcome back Triston Casas. After missing two months with an ankle injury, Casas began rehabbing in the complex league in mid-July and returned to Triple A at the end of the month. All told, he had an .885 OPS for the month with a couple of Triple-A home runs. … Big Joe Davis finished the month with a nine-game hitting streak that he carried into August, but he had only a .586 OPS for the month. He didn’t hit for his usual power. … Pedro Castellanos was bumped up to Triple A at the end of June and hit .300 in July (though the high batting average came with only one walk and no homers). … Three home runs and a .522 slugging percentage for Portland’s Hudson Potts last month. He had a good June, too.
Second base
- Brainer Bonaci
Low-A Salem
20 years old
In July: .324/.448/.581
His on-base percentage had been pretty good all year, but Bonaci hadn’t hit for average or shown even a hint of power in May or June. All of that changed in July when he hit his first two home runs of the year, doubled nine times (most in the system for the month) and tripled twice. He did all that while continuing to walk (18 times) and strikeout (20) at a fairly even pace. Bonaci entered the month of August with a .398 on-base percentage for the year, and a .368 for his career. He’s been primarily used at second base while getting time at shortstop and third base, suggesting an interesting utility profile in the future.
Worth mentioning: Bonaci’s teammate Eddinson Paulino would also have fit here (or at third base, for that matter). He had an .821 OPS while getting time at second, third and center field for Salem. He’s had an OPS over .800 each of the past three months and could be an interesting Rule 5 candidate this winter. Probably too inexperienced to stick on a big league roster (he’s been in Low A all year), but he clearly can hit a little and play basically anywhere. … For a while there, it seemed utility man Ryan Fitzgerald was going to hit his way into a big league call-up, but he hit just .105 with only three extra-base hits in July, a month even worse than his .571 OPS in June. … We’re still waiting for Nick Yorke’s breakout moment. He set a very high bar last season and just hasn’t been able to replicate it. Yorke played 10 games in July and hit just .214/.250/.357, which was actually his second-best month of the year in terms of slugging and OPS. … New Worcester infielder Enmanual Valdez (acquired in the Christian Vázquez trade) had a strong July for the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate. He hit nine doubles and four homers for a .945 OPS (which was actually his lowest monthly OPS of the season).
Shortstop
- Marcelo Mayer
Low-A Salem
19 years old
In July: .303/.453/.515
He wasn’t the only Red Sox shortstop to stand out last month — see our pick at third base — but Mayer’s been good enough to overshadow almost anyone in the system. He’s had an OPS of at least .789 in each month this season, but July was a season-best .968. He hit more homers in June, but drew 18 walks with just 20 strikeouts in July, showing the mature approach that made him the fourth overall draft pick and a league-wide standout. If he weren’t so young — almost two years younger than average in the Carolina League — he might have been promoted to High A already. As it is, he’s pushing to get there by the end of the year, which is saying a lot for a high school pick.
Worth mentioning: He played only eight games in the minor leagues last month, but Jeter Downs was impressive in that small sample with four home runs, four doubles, and a system-best 1.467 OPS. Downs was mostly in the big leagues last month where he had some good moments but ultimately hit just .154 while often playing out of position at third base. … When Portland’s David Hamilton is getting on base, he gets to show off his best tool. He had a .364 on-base percentage in July and stole 21 bases without being caught. He also homered three times. … It’s been a really nice bounce-back year for Greenville’s Matthew Lugo, but July was a rough month. He had a .205/.272/.342 slash line, good for a .614 OPS (he had at least an .800 OPS every other month).
Third base
- Christian Koss
Double-A Portland
24 years old
In July: .337/.375/.547
Occasionally, it’s worth listing a player slightly out of position to best highlight the system’s top performers. That’s the case with Koss, who’s been mostly a shortstop but with 18 games at third base, which is enough for our purposes. Bouncing back from a disappointing June, Koss had eight doubles and four home runs in July, pushing his season OPS back up to .793 and making a fresh case for a 40-man spot this offseason (when he’ll be Rule 5 eligible). He has an interesting bat for a player with his defensive versatility.
Worth mentioning: A blistering May and June suggested Blaze Jordan was setting himself up for a promotion to High A, but the 19-year-old hit just .221/.309/.302 with no home runs in July, suggesting he’s still being adequately challenged by Low-A pitching. … After hitting 26 home runs in 77 games for Greenville, Nick Northcut was promoted to Double A at the end of July. He homered in two of his first four games at the higher level but hit just .194 overall for the month. … In his first full month in Double A, Alex Binelas homered five times, but he was also second in the organization with 31 strikeouts while hitting just .157. … Nick Sogard has kind of filled in everywhere in Double A and Triple A, and he’s had a nice year including a .755 OPS in July.
Left field
- Tyler Dearden
Double-A Portland
24 years old
In July: .296/.387/.519
After leading the organization in home runs a year ago, Dearden got off to a rough start this season. He was slugging only .393 with two home runs at the end of June. In July, though, he went deep three times in 15 games, and he finished the month especially strong with nine hits (including two homers and three doubles) in his last six games.
Worth mentioning: New High-A Greenville outfielder Corey Rosier (acquired in the Eric Hosmer deal) joined the Red Sox system when he was red-hot. Playing mostly left field for the Padres’ High-A affiliate, he had a .946 OPS for the month with 11 steals and three triples. … 2018 second-round pick Nick Decker is still having a tough time in Greenville. The 22-year-old is hitting just .137 for the year and had a .582 OPS for the month. His month of May was encouraging, but he just hasn’t done much since. … Last year’s third-round pick, Tyler McDonough, has split his time pretty evenly in left field, center field and second base (with a handful of starts at shortstop). July was hit second-best month by OPS (.699), but he also had the system’s third-most strikeouts for the month (30).
Center field
Ceddanne Rafaela. (AP Photo / Abbie Parr)
- Ceddanne Rafaela
Double-A Portland
21 years old
In July: .312/.361/.506
There was some temptation to mix it up this month and go with someone else in center field, but Rafaela is ultimately the choice for the fourth straight month. Not only did he continue to perform in Double A (tied for the third-most hits in the organization for the month) but he made his Futures Game debut in July, something we might not have predicted coming into the season. Rafaela continues to be the breakout prospect of the organization.
Worth mentioning: Signed in January for $400,000, 17-year-old Natanael Yuten has put up big numbers in the Dominican Summer League while splitting his time between right field and center. He had the second-most hits in the organization in July (26) while producing a .321/.385/.407 slash line. … The U.S. debut of 18-year-old Miguel Bleis has been encouraging. He had a .258/.279/.500 slash line in July. The 24 strikeouts with only two walks perhaps speak to his youth, but a three-hit, two-homer game on July 11 speaks to his upside. … Salem’s Eduardo Lopez got on base a decent amount (.304 on-base percentage with 10 walks and 12 strikeouts) but he didn’t hit much, just a .197 average with no home runs. … He wasn’t in the Red Sox system at the time, but new prospect Wilyer Abreu (acquired from the Astros) had a terrific month of July with a .955 OPS, four homers, eight doubles and five stolen bases in Double A. He was assigned to Portland.
Right field
- Phillip Sikes
High-A Greenville
23 years old
In July: .271/.350/.529
An 18th-round pick in 2021, Sikes doesn’t get much prospect attention, but his production has been hard to ignore. He opened the year with a .906 OPS through three months in Low A, then he moved up to High A on July 4 and promptly delivered one of the better months in Red Sox organization (while playing all three outfield spots). He raked in the complex league last summer, too. At this rate, he could finish the season top 10 in the organization in doubles, home runs and stolen bases, and that’s despite some guys already having more than 100 additional at-bats.
Worth mentioning: Another kind of OK month for Gilberto Jimenez. He hit .300 but drew only two walks and slugged just .386. He has speed and a decent hit tool, but he’s not doing much to stand out otherwise. … A rough start to the year got Brandon Howlett demoted from Double A to High A, but he got going in July with an .888 OPS and a .250 average. It was the first month this season that Howlett hit better than .171. … Johan Mieses doesn’t play a ton in Triple A this year, but he got added playing time in July and delivered a 1.007 OPS with eight doubles and a couple of stolen bases. … Portland’s Izzy Wilson spent quite a bit of the month on the IL but when he played, he had a .908 OPS in 16 games.
Starting pitchers
Bryan Mata. (Jim Rassol / USA TODAY)
- Bryan Mata
Double-A Portland
23 years old
In July: 2.08 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 27 strikeouts
After spending much of the year rehabbing his way through lower-level competition, Mata spent all of July in Double A and continued his encouraging return from Tommy John surgery. It was a bit uneven — he made five starts, he walked only one in three of them, in the other two he walked a total of nine — but the total output was good, and he had the seventh-most innings in the system, an indication that he’s built up without a setback.
- Luis Pereles
Complex League
19 years old
In July: 0.00 ERA, 0.47 WHIP, 23 strikeouts
The total workload wasn’t huge, only 15 innings, but Pereles made five starts in July and went three scoreless innings each time. He allows just eight base runners (four walks, three hits and a hit batsman) while striking out nearly three times as many (he had eight strikeouts in one start). Really nice month for a $75,000 international free agent from the 2019 class.
- Eybersson Polanco, Alvaro Mejias
Dominican Summer League
18 years old
In July: 0.77 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, 37 strikeouts combined
Combining these two because they’re both DSL teenagers from the 2021 international class, and they had really similar numbers in July. Polanco made four starts without allowing an earned run and had a 0.67 WHIP. Mejias made four starts, three were scoreless, and he had a 0.65 WHIP (lowest in the system among those with more than 15 innings).
- Luis De La Rosa
Low-A Salem
20 years old
In July: 2.08 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 20 strikeouts
Promoted from the complex league to Low-A Salem on July 7, De La Rosa pitched to a 2.57 ERA in his first five full-season outings. None were actually starts, but he went four innings twice and three innings once, so he wound up with a low-level starter’s workload. He also had 15 strikeouts with only three walks at the higher level. De La Rosa was part of the Andrew Benintendi trade.
- Brian Keller
Triple-A Worcester
28 years old
In July: 1.23 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 31 strikeouts
Taken from the Yankees in the minor league Rule 5, Keller moved temporarily into the Triple-A bullpen in June — when the Worcester rotation was loaded — but he became a starter again in July and delivered five strong starts, never allowing more than one run while racking up the second-most strikeouts in the Red Sox system.
Worth mentioning: Making his way back from Tommy John surgery, Thaddeus Ward got back into real games in July, making six starts ranging from the complex league to High-A Greenville. He pitched to a 2.00 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 18 innings. He did seem to be challenged a little more when he reached High A. … Let’s add another Tommy John recovery to the list: Hunter Dobbins, an eighth-rounder in 2021, returned to games in June and had a terrific July. He had a 2.63 ERA through five starts with Low-A Salem, and his numbers were even better for he allowed five runs on July 30. He finished with the second-most strikeouts in the system. … Third-round pick Ryan Zeferjahn moved in the High-A rotation in July and pitched to a 2.12 ERA with a 1.00 WHIP (of course, he then allowed nine runs in his first August start, but that doesn’t count!). … In his first full month in Triple A, Chris Murphy opened July with three good starts but finished with a couple of bad ones. So far, his ERA is 2 runs higher in Triple A than it was in Double A. … Salem’s Juan Daniel Encarnacion led the system with 33 strikeouts this month. … Wikelman Gonzalez’s disappointing season continued with a 7.07 ERA in July. His last start of the month was his best, though, and he opened August with five pretty good innings.
Reliever
- Frank German
Triple-A Worcester
24 years old
In July: 1.80 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 17 strikeouts
There are cases to be made for several relievers — including a few others in Triple A — but we’ll single out German, who gave up a two-run homer in his first outing of the month but went on to make seven more appearances without being charged with a run and with only two hits allowed. He did walk six batters, but he also struck out 13 in those final eight innings. It was his best month since that absurdly good April when he had 15 strikeouts with no walks in Double A. German remains an interesting call-up and/or 40-man candidate for later in the year.
Worth mentioning: Let’s name some other Triple-A relievers who pitched well in July. Eduard Bazardo had two separate outings in which he went three scoreless innings. … Two solo homers accounted for half of Zack Kelly’s earned runs last month. He had 17 strikeouts with five walks. … Andrew Politi allowed four runs in his first outing of the month, but only one run the rest of the way. He pitched two innings almost every time out. Despite strictly working out of the pen, he threw as many innings as some of the system’s starters. … Lefty Chase Shugart also had one bad, four-run outing but was otherwise pretty good (two earned on eight hits in 11 innings). … Double-A reliever Ryan Fernandez had an absurdly good month of June (which I inexplicably failed to mention last month) but wasn’t as consistent in July with a couple of three-earned-run outings. He’s still generating a lot of strikeouts (16) without many walks (2). … Luis Guerrero, a 17th-round pick last summer, moved up to Low-A Salem in June and allowed just four hits in 12 innings in July. He did walk eight, though, while striking out 17.
(Top photo of Mayer: John Tlumacki / The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
