Red Sox catching/first base prospect Ronald Rosario has been named the Eastern League Player of the Week for the week of July 6-12, Minor League Baseball announced on Monday.
Rosario appeared in four of Double-A Portland’s six road games against New Hampshire last week. The right-handed hitter went 8-for-16 (.500) with four home runs, nine RBIs, four runs scored, one stolen base, and one strikeout. He homered once in Game 1 of Wednesday’s doubleheader, went deep twice on Friday, and left the yard again in Sunday’s series finale.
Following this hot stretch, Rosario is now batting .278/.324/.462 with six doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 26 RBIs, 22 runs scored, two stolen bases, 10 walks, and 41 strikeouts through 43 games (170 plate appearances) for Portland this season, his second at the Double-A level. He is slashing .229/.289/.371 in 38 plate appearances against lefties and .293/.333/.488 in 132 plate appearances against righties.
Defensively, Rosario has primarily split his playing time this year between catcher and first base. Behind Nate Baez and Johanfran Garcia on Portland’s catching depth chart, the 5-foot-11 backstop has thrown out four of 24 would-be base stealers over 15 starts. At first base, where he trails Brooks Brannon on the depth chart, he has committed four errors in 129 chances across 17 starts. He has also made eight starts at DH.
Rosario, 23, originally signed with the Red Sox for $50,000 as an international free agent in July 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, however, the native Venezuelan did not make his professional debut until 2021. He split his first two seasons in pro ball between the rookie-level Dominican Summer and Florida Complex Leagues before graduating to full-season ball in 2023. This past January, he received his first invite to major league spring training and ultimately broke camp with Portland.
Rosario has never been viewed as one of Boston’s premier catching prospects but has provided the organization with solid depth behind the plate over the years. He is slated to reach minor league free agency at the end of the season, though the Red Sox bringing him back on a new contract for 2027 is not out of the realm of possibility.
(Picture of Ronald Rosario: Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)