Connelly Early has the second most strikeouts and the fourth highest strikeout percentage (minimum 70 innings) among Red Sox minor leaguers.
Red Sox prospect Connelly Early pitches in 2023 for Virginia against North Carolina. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)Getty Images
The 2023 fifth round pick out of Virginia has punched out 118 of the 385 batters he has faced (30.6% strikeout rate) between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland this season.
He recorded nine strikeouts in 4 ⅔ innings, including getting Yankees rehabbing first baseman Anthony Rizzo twice, during a start against Somerset on Sunday. He punched out Rizzo swinging with a full count in the first inning, then swinging with another full count with one out and two runners in scoring position in the fifth inning.
He’s a lefty who induces swing and miss and is effective vs. both left-handed hitters (.186 batting average against) and right-handed batters (.217). That combination is valued greatly.
Early, who turned 22 on April 3, just moved onto Baseball America’s Red Sox Top 30 prospect list. He’s listed at 28.
His Baseball America pre-draft scouting report noted “he had solid miss rates on all of his secondaries” coming out of Virginia where he threw to catcher Kyle Teel, a Red Sox 2023 first rounder. Early has added two secondary pitches (sweeper, “cutter/slider type” hybrid) in the past six months that should help him induce even more whiffs.
He also has continued to throw his changeup and curveball.
“I like the changeup depth that I have,” Early said. “So it’s able to miss a decent amount of barrels earlier in the counts or even later in the counts. What I’ve heard is it looks similar to my fastball so it’s just hard to pick up out of the hand. Same with the curveball. It’s got really similar spin to my fastball. So I don’t think the hitters can really pick it up too well.
“I like throwing my changeup in a lot of counts but I also love the curveball,” he added. “I’ve just always thrown that. So that’s always been kind of the bread and butter.”
Early began the 2024 year at Greenville where he posted a 3.72 ERA and .208 batting average against in 15 starts. The numbers haven’t looked as good at Portland (4.84 ERA, five starts) but it’s more about the development than the results as he has begun throwing his sweeper more since his promotion. Double-A batters have hit just .207 against him but his walk rate has increased and that could have to do more with throwing his two newer pitches more often to develop them.
He began working on a sweeper during his bullpens this season.
“And I’ve kind of been taking it into games ever since I’ve been up here,” Early said.
He said it’s been going “pretty solid.”
“I’ve been finding success and weak contact. So that’s what we’ve been shooting for. Just trying to complete the full arsenal,” he said.
The full arsenal also includes what he said he can be referred to as a “cutter/slider” or “cutter/gyro” type of hybrid pitch. He began throwing it around the final week of spring training.
“I was just trying to get something probably a little bit sharper and a little smaller so I could put it in the zone,” Early said. “And also just having a little more command of it than throwing a bigger breaking pitch. Something that looks like it’s in the zone and maybe just off or something like that. And it’s just been a nice pitch to have that I’m just trying to play off my fastball and my other pitches.”
His four-seam fastball has been around an average of 93 mph.
“It kind of depends on the hitter for where I want to go for it but just working it both sides of the plate,” Early said. “And then if I’m trying to go there late, probably up. But you can always steal strikes down low as well.”
He wants to eventually see the fastball velocity tick up some. He said there are many aspects that go into it, including mechanical cues, routine, moving the body a certain speed during delivery and “killing it” in the weight room and with nutrition.
“In Greenville I think I did a really good job of figuring out all the shapes of my pitches, kind of figuring out all those focal points from where I want to start the pitch and how I want to play the pitches off of each other,” he said. “So I thought I did a really good job there with all that. Up here, one of my main focuses has just been trying to use my pitches in the right counts and pretty much just be in the zone — attacking the zone and be there early and often so I can get to those putout counts where I can throw my offspeed a little bit out of the zone and try to get hitters to get themselves out.”
A theme in his scouting reports: He has strong pitchability.
“That’s all I want to be able to do,” he said. “If you command the baseball, it makes your job a lot easier. Obviously some days you go out there and you don’t have feel for one pitch. The only way to regain feel for that pitch is to keep throwing it. So I like to think that I think on the mound — like how I want to play my pitches off of each other. I think that’s kind of I guess what people see as my pitchability — is just being able to make my pitches the same as they are coming into the zone and then have them go to where they’re supposed to.”
He has noticed Double-A hitters are very disciplined and he sees a different approach from them.
“They’re kind of like sitting on one of your pitches,” he said. “Obviously they do a very good job of just going in depth on scouting reports on the pitchers they are going to face. So it’s still making your pitches, executing them as well as you can. Don’t give the hitter too much credit but they are up there trying to find a spot where you’re going to make a mistake and you’ve just gotta keep them off balance.”
