Connelly Early made his major league debut on Tuesday night. His first major league outing was earlier than expected, but due to a plethora of injuries, the Boston Red Sox required his services in Sacramento for a game against the Athletics.
A relative unknown to many, the results for the prospect were spectacular. He threw five shutout innings, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out 11. The 11 strikeouts tied the Boston Red Sox record for most punchouts in a major league debut.
Early used a five-pitch mix to navigate the Athletics’ lineup, four-seam, sinker, slider, curveball and changeup. His fastball command was shoddy at times, but he still managed to earn strikes with it, while the rest of his arsenal was excellent.
The Statcast pitch classifications are inaccurate, so the individual pitch statistics are unclear, but his secondary pitches returned a 23.5% swinging strike rate, a fantastic rate for any outing, let alone a debut. In total, Early generated 19 whiffs. The only Red Sox pitcher with more whiffs in a single outing this season is Garrett Crochet.
In the first inning, Early had a hard time commanding his breaking balls. After that, the lefty settled in and buried his curveball and slider below the zone consistently. The two pitches combined for a 65% strike rate, which is high enough to limit walks and support a starter’s workload.
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Scouts have lauded Early’s changeup as his best pitch, and it looked sharp in limited usage. It only generated three whiffs, but poor fastball command might have contributed to the lack of deception with the changeup. He kept the pitch on the arm side to righties, where it should excel going forward.
Debuts are always difficult to judge. Adrenaline is through the roof, which typically helps velocity, and hitters often haven’t seen the pitcher before. At the same time, first-game jitters can hinder command. It’s too soon to call Early the next great major league pitcher, but he looked the part on Monday as the Red Sox beat the Athletics, 6-0.
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