The Boston Red Sox completed their February trade which sent Andrew Benintendi to the Kansas City Royals earlier this week, acquiring three prospects in the return.
One of those prospects, right-handed pitcher Luis De La Rosa, seems to have created some excitement when it comes to Boston’s chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. Bloom certainly seems both intrigued and interested in the potential of the 18-year-old.
“Very, very young pitcher,” Bloom told reporters about De La Rosa, as transcribed by MassLive.com. “He debuted in the Dominican Summer League in 2019 and of course there was no season last year for him. But for a (then) 16-year-old — and especially someone who is a fairly recent conversion to pitching; he had been a shortstop before — he really performed well in that league, and especially in terms of his strike-throwing, which is not a given for young players at that age.”
The 6-foot-1, 170-pound De La Rosa is one of the three players to be named later that Boston acquired in the three-team Benintendi trade. Boston on Friday also acquired right-hander Grant Gambrell from the Royals and outfielder Freddy Valdez from the Mets.
The Red Sox acquired outfielder Franchy Cordero from Kansas City and pitching prospect Josh Winckowski from the Mets when the three teams agreed to the deal on Feb. 10.
“We got to see him state-side this year. He looked really good,” Bloom told reporters of De La Rosa. “Loose. Projectable. Very athletic. He’s got certainly a developing arsenal. … He’s a long way away. But there’s a lot there to work with. This is really a great, raw resource to give to our pitching development group. Allow him to mold. And again, he’s already showed in his young career he’s got good feel for pitching. And combined with the athleticism that he’s demonstrated being a former infielder, converting to pitching, all of that gives us a lot of optimism that he’s got a good chance to grow and develop. Certainly a long way from being a finished product but there’s a lot of good building blocks there and a lot of chance to add to his stuff and grow as a pitcher as he goes along.”
