The Red Sox 2024 draft class has already proven highly consequential. Four of the club’s top six selections have been traded in deals that brought back Garrett Crochet, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray and Dustin May, and a fifth — second-rounder Payton Tolle — has already reached the majors after enjoying a meteoric rise in his first full season of professional baseball.

Yet up to this point one top pick has flown under the radar.

Brandon Neely, the club’s third-round pick in 2024, has yet to suit up for a Red Sox minor league affiliate through the first year and a half of his pro career. The former University of Florida right-hander missed all of 2025 due to forearm stiffness, and it wasn’t until September where he finally took the mound in the Arizona Fall League.

Now, finally, Neely is ready to get started.

“I’m super excited, watching everyone go out and play last year and being down here in Fort Myers wasn’t very fun,” Neely told the Herald in Fort Myers recently. “I don’t know where I’m going to start but as long as I’ve got somewhere to start I’ll be happy and good to go play.”

Listed at 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, Neely was a First-Team All-SEC selection during his college days at Florida, serving as the team’s closer as a sophomore before bouncing back and forth between the rotation and bullpen his junior year. Neely helped pitch the Gators to the 2024 College World Series and was subsequently taken No. 86 overall by the Red Sox.

After being drafted Neely reported to Fort Myers with his fellow draftees and spent the offseason working out and preparing for his first full year. But he only made it to his third live bullpen of the spring before he suffered a forearm injury that wound up costing him the whole year.

“There was a little strain in my forearm that kept lingering,” Neely said. “It was a long process but finally feeling great.”

When camp broke Neely stayed behind and spent the entire season in Fort Myers rehabbing. It was a long and lonely summer, though he said getting to know big league right-hander Kutter Crawford — who also missed the entire season due to injury — was a big help.

“He helped me get through a bunch of stuff,” Neely said of Crawford. “On field and off field and how to respond to being down all year.”

Another source of inspiration was Tolle, who was selected one round earlier than Neely but who blew through the minors, rising from High-A to the big leagues in a span of five months.

“It was awesome watching Payton run up like that,” Neely said. “It’s pretty cool to realize how fast you can really move if you throw the ball well, and at the end of the day that’s the goal.”

Approaching full health by the end of the season, Neely was sent to the Arizona Fall League to get some work in before the offseason. Neely made five appearances, and while the numbers weren’t impressive — he allowed 12 earned runs on 16 hits and eight walks in 10 innings — he said the experience was ultimately a positive one.

“It was nice to be out there competing again,” he said.

Neely is now being developed as a starter, and given that he’s already 22 years old there’s a chance he could move quickly up the system. Brian Abraham, the club’s senior director of player development, said they’re pleased with where Neely is physically, adding that he could be in the mix for either High-A Greenville or even possibly Double-A Portland.

With a fastball that touches 97 mph and a developing arsenal of secondary pitches, Neely will be one of the most intriguing arms in the system this coming season. Yet whether he starts the season in Greenville, Portland or someplace else, Neely is excited to finally get to work.

“Anything outside of Fort Myers, you know?” Neely joked. “It’s fine just to get my feet wet and start somewhere and continue to pitch, improve myself and try to make it to Boston as quick as possible and try to get a World Series ring.”