The Red Sox are promoting pitching prospect Blake Wehunt from Low-A Salem to High-A Greenville, according to SoxProspects.com’s executive editor Chris Hatfield.
Much like fellow 2023 draftee Kristian Campbell, who is slated to make the jump to Double-A Portland from Greenville, Wehunt is also enjoying a strong start to his first full season in professional baseball. In eight starts for Salem, the 23-year-old right-hander posted a 2.16 ERA and 2.88 FIP with 44 strikeouts to 15 walks over 33 1/3 innings in which opposing hitters batted just .167 against him.
Among 62 Carolina League pitchers who had thrown at least 30 innings coming into play on Sunday, Wehunt ranked ninth in strikeouts per nine innings (11.88) and ERA, sixth in strikeout rate (32.4 percent), fourth in batting average against and groundball rate (56.6 percent), 14th in WHIP (1.05), 10th in FIP, and 11th in xFIP (3.10), per FanGraphs.
After spending the first three years of his collegiate career (2020-2022) at Southern Mississippi, Wehunt was selected by the Red Sox in the ninth round of last summer’s draft out of Kennesaw State. The Georgia native signed for $100,000 and made one scoreless relief appearance in the Florida Complex League to mark his professional debut.
Listed at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds, Wehunt throws from a three-quarters arm slot and has an imposing presence on the mound. As noted in his SoxProspects.com scouting report, the burly righty operates with a three-pitch mix that consists of a 93-94 mph fastball that can reach 96 mph, an 82-85 mph sweeping slider, and an 84-85 mph splitter.
Wehunt, who does not turn 24 until November, is currently regarded by SoxProspects.com as the No. 38 prospect in Boston’s farm system, which ranks 18th among pitchers in the organization. That positioning, as noted by Hatfield, is likely to improve when the site updates its rankings later this week.
In the interim, Wehunt is slated to join a crowded rotation mix in Greenville that includes Yordanny Monegro, Jedixson Paez, Dalton Rogers, Juan Daniel Encarnacion, Cooper Adams, Connelly Early, and Hayden Mullins. It also seems that David Sandlin, who has been on the injured list with right forearm tightness since May 14 but recently threw a bullpen, and Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (3.82 ERA in Salem) are not far behind from being included in that group.
(Picture of Blake Wehunt: Kelly O’Connor/sittingstill.smugmug.com)
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