Red Sox Pitching Prospect Showing Potential In Portland

The Boston Red Sox have developed a number of prospects in recent years to rise as one of baseball's top-ranked farm systems.

In the current state, position players such as Marcelo Mayer, Nick Yorke, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Kyle Teel surround much of the hype around the system.

The Red Sox do have a few intriguing arms working their way through the minors. One of them took the mound on Sunday in right-hander Hunter Dobbins. Boston selected the righty in the eighth round of the 2021 MLB Draft.

Dobbins started 2023 in the Red Sox system with High-A Greenville and got off to a strong start. At one point, the hurler won four straight starts with 29 strikeouts and just one walk over 26 innings in that stretch.

The Texas Tech product got promoted to Double-A Portland in mid-June. Dobbins pitched well through July but struggled as the calendar flipped to August. Since then, the righty has now gotten the win in three of his last four starts.

Portland's starter on Sunday turned 24 just days before his start and kicked off his new year with a solid outing. Dobbins allowed a leadoff home run against the Somerset Patriots, the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, before settling into the game. The right-hander had a stretch of retiring eight straight batters before surrendering two more runs in the sixth and departing after 5 1/3 innings with seven hits allowed two walks and four strikeouts.

Portland held on for the victory and Dobbins got a winning decision for the third time in his last four outings.

The Red Sox pitching product looks to find consistency to keep pace with his encouraging flashes of potential as a starter in his second full minor league season.