Red Sox pitching prospect Jonathan Brand recorded his fourth save of the season in Low-A Salem’s 7-4 win over the Fredericksburg Nationals at Virginia Credit Union Stadium on Wednesday night.
Brand worked a scoreless ninth inning and needed all of 12 pitches (8 strikes) to strike out two of the three batters he faced. The right-hander induced three swings-and-misses in the processes of extending his scoreless appearance streak to five.
Brand has yet to allow an earned run in six outings out of the Salem bullpen this month. On the 2023 campaign as a whole, the 23-year-old hurler has posted a miniscule 0.96 ERA to go along with 24 strikeouts to just six walks over 14 relief appearances spanning 18 2/3 innings of work.
Among 220 Carolina League pitchers who have accrued 10 or more innings to this point in the season, Brand entered Thursday ranking 19th in batting average against (.154), 13th in WHIP (0.86), and fifth in ERA, per FanGraphs. Using those same parameters, however, Brand also ranks ninth (or 213th) in line-drive rate (30.8 percent), which suggests he has gotten hit hard quite a bit.
Still, it has been an encouraging first full professional season for Brand, who the Red Sox took in the eighth round of last year’s amateur draft out of Miami University (Ohio). Rather than transfer to Auburn as a graduate student, the Georgia native signed with Boston for just $7,500.
Listed at 5-foot-9 and 200 bounds, Brand throws from a three-quarters arm slot and operates with a four-pitch mix that consists of an 89-90 mph fastball, a 74-76 mph curveball that features 12-to-6 break, an 80-82 mph slider that features short, horizontal break, and an 80-82 mph changeup, per his SoxProspects.com scouting report.
While he is not currently regarded by any major publication as one of the top relief prospects in Boston’s farm system, one has to figure that Brand is on the cusp of a promotion to High-A Greenville. That could happen sooner rather than later if he continues to show that he really isn’t being challenged at the Low-A level.
Brand, who does not turn 24 until next February, would be looking to become the fourth member of the Sox’ 2022 draft class to make the jump from Salem to Greenville this year, joining the likes of left-handers Dalton Rogers and Nathan Landry and outfielder Roman Anthony.
(Picture of Jonathan Brand: Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.smugmug.com)
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