Much of the optimism surrounding the 2025 Boston Red Sox comes from the farm system. Top prospects Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Marcelo Mayer have all been generating buzz at spring training, and all three project to be key pieces of Boston’s future.
There’s obviously more to a farm system than three top prospects, though. And as the Red Sox look to graduate those three to the big leagues, potentially all this coming season, it’s important to start tracking what else is coming through the pipeline.
Appropriately enough, MLB Pipeline released its updated 2025 preseason top 30 prospects list for the Red Sox on Monday. What did the new rankings show? Here are three key takeaways.
The top is the top… but for how long?
The goal of any major league team with a good farm system is to graduate as much of that system as soon as they can, and the Red Sox are well-positioned to do so in 2025. Anthony and Campbell are top Rookie of the Year candidates who should make their debuts early in the season, while Mayer is more of a late-season debut prospect.
Once all three are gone, there could be an interesting competition to see who the new consensus top Red Sox prospect is. After trading former number-four and five prospects in Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery to land starting pitcher Garrett Crochet, the depth took a bit of a hit this offseason.
Nineteen-year-old shortstop Franklin Arias has the early edge to become the new number-one if and when all of the “big three” are promoted. Right behind him is flamethrower Luis Perales. But don’t lose sight of one of the list’s biggest risers:
“The Password” continues his climb
Jhostynxon Garcia (affectionately known as “The Password” in Red Sox circles) has been a revelation over the past year. He wasn’t ranked by MLB Pipeline at the end of the 2023 season, but climbed all the way to number nine after the Crochet trade and rose to number six in Monday’s updated rankings.
Garcia, 22, has big-time bat speed that is already translating to above-average power. The Red Sox added him to the 40-man roster this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft despite the fact that he only has 30 games under his belt at Double-A.
If there’s one position player prospect that could sneak his way onto the big-league roster before the end of the regular season, it’s Garcia. And as crowded as the Red Sox’s outfield is right now, big-time hitters tend to carve out roles for themselves on any team.
Still searching for future rotation staples
Whenever anyone questions the Red Sox farm system on the whole, it usually has something to do with the pitching. Boston has steadily churned out top position player prospects over the last few years, but the pitchers are much more of a question mark.
After the 2025 season, the Red Sox will probably have a bit of a rotation reset with Walker Buehler and Lucas Giolito both currently slated for free agency. And young, controllable starting pitching is crucial to any team’s ability to win at an affordable cost.
Whether it’s Perales (MLB Pipeline’s number-five Boston prospect), David Sandlin (no. 9), Hunter Dobbins (no. 13), or Richard Fitts (no. 14), it would be a big development for the Red Sox if one of the farmhands could establish himself as a future fixture of this rotation.
