Who’s this Red Sox prospect who came out of nowhere to land on a Top 10?
Red Sox 20-year-old minor league pitcher Jedixson Paez is a relatively unknown prospect with little information about him online. Baseball America has no scouting report and doesn’t rank him among Boston’s Top 30 prospects. The righty also doesn’t appear on MLB Pipeline’s Red Sox Top 30 list.
Out of nowhere though, he landed as Boston’s No. 8 prospect on a Top 47 Red Sox prospect list that Fangraphs dropped July 2.
The Venezuela native is 3-1 with a 2.67 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 72 strikeouts and just seven walks in 13 outings (six starts) between Low-A Salem and High-A Greenville. He’s averaging 11.3 strikeouts and only 1.1 walks per nine innings. He earned his promotion to High A on May 29.
“He’s always had this incredible poise and just an advanced feel,” Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero said. “It’s always been like that — strike throwing ability over high velo or pure off-the-charts stuff. But his pitchability is incredible. We’ve seen the velo tick up now into the low 90s. Really good feel for a breaking ball. He has a four- or five-pitch mix that he really controls and commands really well. And that’s been kind of what has driven his success.”
The command is off the charts. Paez — listed at 6-foot-1, 170 pounds — has averaged 8.8 strikeouts and 1.5 walks while posting a 3.14 ERA in 57 (45 starts) in the minor leagues since Boston signed him Jan. 15, 2021.
“Now that he’s physically getting stronger we are seeing that velo start to tick up a little bit,” Romero said. “So he’s really exciting. A true starter in every sense.”
He throws a sinker, four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup and slider.
“Really the three go-to (pitches) for him are the slider, the changeup and that sinker,” Romero said.
The slider and sinker work well together.
“Because they’re going in opposite directions,” Romero said. “He’s able to manipulate both really well. That’s been key. His changeup has also been very effective.”
Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen listed Paez at No. 8 and wrote the following: “Paez is not the best pitching prospect in this system, but he is my favorite. The little low-three-quarters righty looked like a Vance Worley starter kit last year, but his secondary pitches and velocity have both taken a meaningful leap compared to 2023 and Paez has retained his incredible command in the process. Paez is an east/west artist and rarely misses in hittable locations. He’ll bury his sinker in spots that
make it impossible to elevate, run it back over the corner of the plate for a strike, set up his excellent changeup with precise arm-side location, and occasionally run his heater up the ladder where it can slip past certain hitters’ bats because of its angle.
