Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s Connolly Early, and he hails from the old coal-mining town of Midlothian, Virginia, west of Richmond. Despite Midlothian having a population under 20,000, it’s punched above its weight culturally, being the hometown of 90s alt rocker Aimee Mann and serving as the inspiration for the setting of Donnie Darko. Midlothian, quite evidently, must be emo as shit.
Early initially played college ball at West Point, one of the most selective colleges in the entire country — you need a dang recommendation from your Congressional representative to get in there! But he must have decided that army life wasn’t for him — or, at least, that baseball life was better — because he transferred to UVA as a junior and then went on to strike out 100 batters in 87.1 innings while putting up an ERA of 3.00
Early was the Red Sox’ fifth round pick (and seventh in total) in the 2023 draft, back when the Chaim Bloom-led front office was shying away from pitchers in the early rounds and focusing on lower-ceiling college arms who demonstrated good pitchability towards the middle of the draft. He started last season in Greenville, where he put up better numbers than he had at UVA, striking out 12 batters per 9 innings, and he’s pretty much maintained that strikeout rate as he’s moved up the system.
The Sox called him today to start tonight’s game in place of Dustin May, who is going on the IL.
What position does he play
He’s a lefty with an arsenal that currently consists of a mid-90s fastball, an advanced change-up, and a sweeper and slider that are still works-in-progress. That’s the profile of someone who is going to get plenty of chances to make it as a starter.
He’s generally considered one of those prospects who could be a solid mid-rotation starter if everything breaks right. That wasn’t supposed to happen this year, but with the Red Sox pitching depth being shattered by injuries and and two trades that haven’t worked out this year (those being the trades of Quinn Priester and for Dustin May) he’s being pressed into service ahead of schedule.
The good news is that Early has kept getting better and better as he’s moved up the ladder. In fact, Baseball America’s editor-in-chief revealed today that he just missed the cut of their last top-100 prospects list:
The bad news is that, like Payton Tolle, he’s not a finished product. And, unlike Payton Tolle, he doesn’t have a fastball that’s nearly as good as anyone’s on the planet to lean on as he develops. He’ll throw strikes and try to get batters with his change-up, which can generate swings and misses from hitters on both sides of the plate. But the fact that he’s still working on command of all his other pitches means there could be some ugly growing pains here and there.
Tl;dr, just give me his 2025 stats
AA: 12 GS, 71.2 IP, 96 K, 52 H, 29 BB, 3 HR, 2.51 ERA
AAA: 6 GS, 28.2 IP, 36 K, 19 H, 11 BB, 2 HR, 2.83 ERA
Show me a cool highlight.
He struck out 10 hitters — a career high — just six days ago, so he might be getting the call at a pretty good time.
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
Possibly clenching his jaw waaaay too tight as he unleashes a pitch. He’s got to be careful with that. Given all the injuries to the Sox pitching staff, the last thing this team needs is to lose another arm to a bad case of TMJ.
What’s his role on the 2025 Red Sox?
Per the established and agreed-upon rules of baseball, each team must designate one player at the beginning of each game to stand on that little hill thingee in the middle of the ballpark and throw baseballs to the other team. The 2025 Red Sox have somehow run out of guys to do that. So, unless things go really badly tonight, Early will likely be called on to make three starts as the team limps towards October.
