Red Sox pitching prospect Yordanny Monegro was sharp in his latest start for Low-A Salem this past Friday night.
Going up against the Augusta GreenJackets in front of a crowd of 5,383 at Carilion Clinic Field, Monegro worked five scoreless innings. The right-hander scattered three hits and issued just one walk while striking out 11 of the 19 batters he faced.
Interestingly enough, Monegro walked the very first batter of the game in Ambioris Tavarez, who later stole second base but did not advance any further. An inning later, Monegro gave up a leadoff double to Pier-Olivier Boucher to put himself in immediate trouble. Again, though, the 20-year-old hurler stranded a runner in scoring position by punching out three GreenJackets in a row.
In both the third and fourth innings, Monegro surrendered a leadoff single. Both runners stole second base with two outs, but Monegro did not falter and instead fanned Drew Compton and Jose Dilone on four and six pitches, respectively. He ended his night by striking out the side on 15 pitches in a 1-2-3 top of the fifth.
Finishing with 82 pitches (55 strikes), Monegro induced 18 swings-and-misses, the most of any pitcher at the Low-A level on Friday, per Baseball Savant. For as impressive as Monegro was, though, he did not factor into the decision as Salem went on to fall to Augusta by a final score of 3-1. GreenJackets starter Owen Murphy was credited with the win after striking out eight over 6 1/3 frames of one-run ball and was subsequently named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week on Monday.
While Monegro may have fallen short of that honor, Friday’s outing represented his second double-digit strikeout game of the season and his first since June 25. In seven starts for Salem now, Monegro has posted a 2.56 ERA (2.45 FIP) with 47 strikeouts to 14 walks over 31 2/3 innings in which he has held opposing hitters to a .223 batting average against. That comes after he pitched to a minuscule 1.20 ERA in three starts (15 innings) for the rookie-level Florida Complex League Red Sox to kick off the 2023 campaign.
Promoted from the FCL to Salem on June 20, Monegro is averaging the sixth-most strikeouts per nine innings (13.36) among the 160 Carolina League pitchers who have accrued at least 30 innings to this point in the season. Using those same parameters, Monegro also ranks 15th in strikeout rate (33.6 percent), third in swinging-strike rate (17.1 percent), 20th in ERA, first in FIP, and 14th in xFIP (3.11), per FanGraphs.
Monegro originally signed with the Red Sox for just $35,000 as an international free agent coming out of the Dominican Republic in February 2020. There was not much fanfare surrounding the Santo Domingo native coming into this season after he struggled to a 7.36 ERA in his first go-around at the Florida Complex League last year, but he has since caught the attention of fans and evaluators alike.
Baseball America, for instance, now has Monegro as the No. 29 prospect in Boston’s farm system after he was unranked to begin the season. In similar fashion, MLB Pipeline — which previously had him unranked — pegged Monegro as the Sox’ No. 22 prospect in its midseason rankings, which were released last week.
Though Monegro’s sudden success this year may be a surprise to some, internally, the Red Sox had high hopes for the righty well before the minor-league season even started. Assistant general manager Eddie Romero acknowledged as much in a recent email exchange with BloggingtheRedSox.com.
“We were really excited about Monegro heading into the spring,” Romero wrote. “He impressed a lot with the physical shape he came into spring training, and has continued to work since then — this has been key to his early-season success. He’s super athletic with a lightning quick arm which contributes to his ability to have a plus breaking ball. He’s tightened up his delivery to let his athleticism show and be consistent with his mechanics. Hope he continues this success into the second half.”
Listed at a projectable 6-foot-4 and 180 pounds, Monegro throws from a high three-quarter arm slot and operates with a three-pitch mix that consists of a mid-90s four-seam fastball that tops out at 95-96 mph, a high-80s slider, and an upper-70s curveball. As noted in his Baseball America scouting report, Monegro is more of a control-over-command pitcher since he is generally around the strike zone.
Monegro, who turns 21 in October, has already done an admirable job in raising his prospect profile this summer. Barring any surprises, it will certainly be interesting to see how he goes about putting the finishing touches on what has been a breakout season.
(Picture of Yordanny Monegro: Bryan Green/Flickr)
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