Less than three months ago Jake Schaffner and Owen Hull were teammates helping lead the University of North Carolina to a runner-up finish in the College World Series.
Since then so much has changed, yet so much has stayed the same.
Boston’s top two selections in this summer’s MLB Draft, Schaffner and Hull have taken the next step in their baseball journeys together and are already enjoying fast success as professionals. The two recently debuted at High-A Greenville and have gotten off to stellar starts, helping power a Greenville club that found itself in the hunt for a playoff spot entering the final weekend of the High-A season.
“They both have performed as well as we could have hoped,” said Red Sox senior director of player development Brian Abraham. “Both have been able to acclimate well to High-A, be part of a group that’s pushing for a playoff spot going into this final week.”
Schaffner, who the Red Sox selected in the first round at No. 20 overall, is batting .316 with a home run, 15 RBI and an .807 OPS through his first 21 games at Greenville entering Saturday.
Hull, who went No. 67 overall with a Competitive Balance Round B pick acquired as part of the Caleb Durbin trade, has been even better. The outfielder is batting .326 with three home runs already through 22 pro games, adding 18 RBI, a .955 OPS and nearly as many walks (15) as strikeouts (17).
“While the work has been there and the effort has been there, we’ve seen numbers be there as well with both, not only on the offensive side but on the defensive side and the base running side,” Abraham said. “We’ve been really pleased with both and we certainly don’t want to always lump them together but as a tandem they’ve been phenomenal.”
Though it’s been less than two months since the former UNC standouts were drafted by the Red Sox, Abraham said the two have already shown some noticeable improvement relative to their performance in college. Specifically, he said both have done a good job hitting the ball in the air.
“They both hit the ball hard, they drive the ball to all fields, maximizing their ability to do that in the air and even more so to the pull side, getting the head out front and taking advantage pitches they can do damage on,” Abraham said. “Those are things we’ve focused on and have worked on and feel like in a short amount of time they’ve both seen some improvement in those areas.”
Though Schaffner and Hull are the headliners of this year’s draft class, they aren’t the only ones who have been assigned to full-season affiliates.
Martin Shelar, a 19-year-old ninth-round pick who received one of the top bonuses of the Red Sox class, is already playing at Low-A Salem and recently hit his first professional home run.
“He hits the ball really hard. I think that’s the most prominent thing,” Abraham said. “When he gets a ball he can drive and makes contact, it goes hard and it goes far.”
Three others, including 11th-round pick Wills Maginnis, 16th-round pick Colton Coates and 17th-round pick Alex Kranzler, have been assigned to Salem as well, with Kranzler the only pitcher from Boston’s class already appearing in minor league games.
“Most of it is dependent on their workload, how much they had been throwing, where they are capacity-wise and for him it was a chance for him to get some more innings,” Abraham said. “A guy who was already built up to a pretty good spot and just felt like because we can it’s an opportunity for him to go out and show what he can do.”
Top Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias continues to put on a show at Triple-A with the WooSox. (Courtesy of the Worcester Red Sox)
Triple-A: Arias keeps cooking
With more than a month of experience at Triple-A under his belt, top Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias has continued to impress.
Currently ranked as the No. 2 prospect in MLB by Baseball America, Arias is batting .317 with four home runs, 26 RBI and an .860 OPS over his first 31 games with the WooSox entering Saturday. His 23 home runs overall leads all Red Sox minor leaguers and his .318 average ranks second only to Franklin Primera among Red Sox prospects with at least 250 plate appearances.
Kristian Campbell’s second-half resurgence has continued as well. Since the start of July the former top prospect is batting .301 with five home runs, 25 RBI and a .922 OPS. He’s been driving the ball with authority, and though he’s unlikely to break into the big leagues again with both Eli White and Jahmai Jones on the current roster, he’s putting himself in position to compete for a spot next season.
Abraham said it’s been “a battle” trying to figure out what’s going to work best for Campbell throughout his extended time in Triple-A, but he praised the outfielder for putting in the work and said some recent adjustments have helped him play with more freedom in game action.
“A slight adjustment to his hands, putting them a little bit lower, making sure he’s a little more athletic in the box and getting him back to maybe where he was when he made his rise through our system and in a bit more of a comfort zone has really freed him up and allowed him to perform better over the past month or so,” Abraham said.
“It’s been really fun to see, mentally whenever you’re getting more hits in games it’s always a better thing,” he continued. That allows for a little more comfort and day-to-day, I don’t want to say being relaxed, but when you’re hitting the baseball hard and getting hits that always makes you feel better when you’re going to compete every night.”
Among the WooSox pitching staff, Noah Song has emerged as an interesting bullpen possibility. The right-hander has endured a rocky season, but since the start of August he has settled down and posted a 2.55 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings over his last seven appearances coming into the weekend.
Red Sox outfield prospect Justin Gonzales has gotten off to a strong start since being promoted to Double-A Portland last month. (Photo by Rachel O’Driscoll/Boston Red Sox)
Double-A: Gonzales on a tear
Justin Gonzales, the No. 2 prospect in the Red Sox system, has made himself right at home since being called up to Double-A.
Through his first 13 games since being promoted to Portland, the 6-foot-7 slugger is batting .278 with two home runs and an .828 OPS. Gonzales is now up to 19 homers on the season, smashing his previous career-high of five.
Johanfran Garcia has been even hotter. The 21-year-old catcher recently won Eastern League Player of the Week after going 10 for 18 (.556) with six runs scored, three home runs and eight RBI over four games the week of Aug. 24-30. He has 18 homers on the season for the Sea Dogs.
The Sea Dogs’ starting rotation was completely overhauled at the trade deadline, with Anthony Eyanson going to Baltimore in the Adley Rutschman deal and almost everyone else subsequently getting called up to Triple-A. But Hayden Mullins has remained a stalwart in Portland and is now coming off one of the best stretches of his career.
The 25-year-old has posted a 1.03 ERA with 39 strikeouts over 26 1/3 innings in his last five starts dating back to Aug. 6. Over that stretch he’s struck out eight or more batters in four of the five outings, including a season-high 10 strikeouts over six shutout innings on Wednesday.
Devin Futrell, a 10th-round pick out of Vanderbilt in 2024, has moved up two levels this season and already has two outings with seven or more strikeouts through his first five Double-A outings.
High-A: Yordanny Monegro returns
One of the most intriguing pitching prospects in the Red Sox system recently made his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery.
Yordanny Monegro made his 2026 debut on Aug. 28, throwing 1 2/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts for High-A Greenville. He took the mound again on Friday night, allowing two runs over two innings with four strikeouts, and barring any setbacks the plan is for Monegro to be activated to Double-A in the near future.
“He looked good,” Abraham said early Friday afternoon of his first start. “Good to see the energy out there, good to see him challenge in the zone.”
Prior to his injury Monegro was among the most overpowering pitchers in the Red Sox system, striking out 49 batters over 33 2/3 innings while posting a 2.67 ERA in nine outings at Double-A Portland early last year before going down with a season-ending elbow injury.
Several other pitchers in Greenville have been piling up strikeouts at a high rate as well. Brady Tygart, a 2024 12th-round pick, has 34 strikeouts in his first five High-A starts, including two outings with 10 strikeouts. Dylan Brown, an eighth-round pick from last season, has been among the system’s most consistent arms with 143 strikeouts in 106 2/3 innings across two levels in his first professional season.
Besides Schaffner and Hull, former third-round pick Antonio Anderson has enjoyed one of the best stretches of his career recently, batting .309 with three home runs and a .941 OPS in 24 games since the start of August. Isaiah Jackson, the prospect acquired in the Vaughn Grissom trade this past winter, is batting .291 with five homers and a .908 OPS over that same stretch.
Low-A: Teenage catcher fast riser
Franklin Primera, who was originally signed for just $10,000 as an international free agent out of Venezuela, has emerged as one of the fastest rising prospects in the Red Sox system and is posting jaw-dropping numbers in his first season playing in the United States.
A 19-year-old catcher, Primera is batting .367 with 12 home runs, 51 RBI, a 1.075 OPS and considerably more walks (47) than strikeouts (35) through 76 games. His numbers in the Florida Complex League were so cartoonish that he earned a quick promotion to Low-A Salem by the end of June, and he’s hardly slowed down since, batting .322 with four home runs and a .947 OPS over 43 games since his promotion.
Primera now ranks as Boston’s No. 3 prospect according to Baseball America and he’s drawn rave reviews from the Red Sox development staff.
“Quite honestly he’s done everything well,” Abraham said. “He’s defended well, he’s received well, he’s built relationships with our pitchers, and then offensively the swing decisions, the bat to ball, the ability to impact the baseball consistently have all been there. In terms of writing out a script for a player and success, he’s checked all the boxes on that end.”
Primera isn’t the only teenager who has stood out in Salem. At 18 years old Sadbiel Delzine is among the youngest players in affiliated minor league baseball, but you wouldn’t know it by the way he’s handled his business, posting a 3.00 ERA with 30 strikeouts in 21 innings over his first six starts at Low-A, including seven strikeouts over three innings during his Aug. 29 outing.
Standing at 6-foot-5, Delzine is Boston’s No. 8 ranked prospect and can already hit high 90s on the radar gun. With many of the club’s top recent pitching prospects either in the majors or traded away, the teenage right-hander figures to be an arm to watch in the coming years.