Fenway Farm Prospect Weekly: Garcia Goes Deep Three Times, Paez Keeps Dealing at Worcester
By James Collins ·
Fenway Farm Prospect Weekly covers the last 7 days of action for the Red Sox farm system.
Garcia's Power Makes a Loud Statement at Double-A
Johanfran Garcia (AA, C, Rank: 23) went 10-for-21 with three home runs and eight RBI in 21 plate appearances last week, adding two walks and hitting just four strikeouts. The three-homer week is the loudest single stretch of his Portland tenure and fits a pattern that has been building since late July. Over his last 30 days at Double-A, he is slashing .288/.364/.559 with five home runs and 12 RBI in 66 plate appearances. That sustained power output makes the offensive case for him as more than a back-of-the-roster depth piece.
The full Double-A line of .293/.342/.503 with 17 home runs in 313 plate appearances is legitimate production for a 21-year-old catcher, and it sits alongside last year's High-A campaign where he posted nine home runs in 196 plate appearances. The power is the carrying tool, backed by enough bat speed and strength to punish mistakes middle-in, and the home run totals at two levels confirm the raw power is genuine. The concern is the contact profile: a 61.6 percent contact rate paired with a 61.2 percent swing rate makes him one of the more aggressive, swing-heavy hitters in the system, and at a 28.4 percent strikeout rate over 313 Double-A plate appearances, better pitchers will keep testing that swing. The hit tool grades at 45, and nothing about the season changes that number. What the last 30 days do suggest is that the 55-grade power is real and showing up on schedule. He projects as a bench catcher, and a three-homer week does not rewrite that, but it does raise the question of whether a bat-first second catcher outcome deserves more weight than the current grades imply.
Paez Is Carving Up Triple-A Lineups One Start at a Time
Jedixson Paez (AAA, RHP, Rank: 21) turned in his best outing of the Worcester stretch last week: five innings, one hit, one earned run, zero walks, and eight strikeouts against 16 batters faced, generating 14 whiffs on 54 pitches. It was the sharpest command performance he has had since arriving at Triple-A, and it came with the walk column completely clean, which is the version of Paez that makes the back-end starter projection feel real rather than aspirational.
His last month at Worcester tell the fuller story: a 3.24 ERA across 16.2 innings with 25 strikeouts, just two walks, and a 38.5 percent strikeout rate against Triple-A batters. The walk rate at 3.1 percent over that stretch is consistent with what he did at Double-A all year, where he issued only five walks in 49 innings. That control is the carrying trait: a fastball sitting 92-93 with average command grades of 55 has produced an 18-strikeout, two-walk line at Worcester so far this season, which is a more useful data point than the brief MLB cameo where a 18.00 ERA reflected command stress under big-league velocity rather than anything structural. His career walk rate of 3.9 percent over 64-plus innings is the number worth anchoring on. The projection is a fifth starter with a swingman floor, and a five-inning, eight-strikeout, zero-walk line at Triple-A is a reasonable step toward the former. The home run vulnerability, 12 allowed across the combined season, is the remaining friction point; pitching to contact with average stuff invites hard contact when the sequencing slips. But last week, nothing slipped.
Quick Hits
Justin Gonzales (AA, OF, Rank: 3) · went 10-for-28 with two doubles, a homer, nine RBI, and four walks across 28 plate appearances. His 19th home run of the combined season came during a stretch in which he is hitting .337/.434/.566 over his last 30 days at High-A, numbers he was putting up just before the Double-A promotion kicked in. The full Double-A line through nine games now reads .375/.457/.625, and the 13.3 percent walk rate has not budged when the level went up. The key developmental question, whether he can generate enough consistent loft to tap into 55-grade power, has had a pretty good answer over the past month.
Owen Hull (A+, OF, Rank: 4) · drove in five on eight hits, including four doubles and a homer, with two walks in 23 plate appearances. He is hitting .333/.443/.542 over his last 30 days at Greenville with a 15.9 percent walk rate and just a 13.6 percent strikeout rate in 88 plate appearances, a contact-and-discipline combination that holds up his season line of .338/.447/.532. Hull is a center-field profile with a 55-grade glove and speed to match, and nine doubles in 94 plate appearances at High-A suggests the loft issues that typically come with unconventional swing mechanics have not been a persistent problem so far.
Hayden Mullins (AA, LHP, Rank: 25) · struck out five and allowed no earned runs across 5.2 innings, scattering four hits and one walk against 24 batters. Over his last 30 days at Portland, the ERA is 1.37 with 29 strikeouts in 19.2 innings, the best sustained stretch of a season that had been bumpy earlier. The full Double-A strikeout rate of 33.1 percent shows the swing-and-miss is genuine, but a 4.46 ERA at the level reflects the walk trouble that has been the persistent friction: 46 walks in 80.2 Double-A innings this year against 51 last season, walk rates that keep the swingman projection more likely than a rotation outcome.
Jake Schaffner (A+, SS, Rank: 2) · went 8-for-19 with a triple and four RBI, adding a walk in 19 plate appearances. A 55 hit tool and a 81.3 percent contact rate for the season back up what the week looked like: a hitter who puts the ball in play consistently and does damage with his legs and line drives. The power grades at 40 and the zero home runs in 90 plate appearances at Greenville confirm that is not where the value lives, but he is slashing .301/.356/.398 at High-A with five steals and enough defensive actions at shortstop to keep the up-the-middle projection alive.
Luke Heyman (A+, C, Rank: 44) · went 4-for-18 with two home runs and seven RBI in 18 plate appearances. His 19th combined homer of the season came on the back of a 15.5 percent walk rate that has been the consistent offensive engine across Low-A and High-A, 65 walks in 420 plate appearances. The 55-grade power and 55-grade arm are the carrying tools; the 67.7 percent contact rate is the ceiling limiter. Seven RBI in one week is a strong production burst for a catcher with a 30-grade athleticism profile.
Dylan Brown (A+, LHP, Rank: 27) · was sharp again: 6.1 innings, two hits, one earned run, one walk, five strikeouts against 21 batters. His slider remains the best pitch in a three-offering mix that sits 91-94 on the fastball. Brown is averaging 13.6 pitches per inning over his last 30 days at Greenville, a number that signals genuine efficiency, and the season ERA sits at 3.69 at High-A across 78 innings with 103 strikeouts. A long reliever projection, not a rotation lock, but he has been one of the more consistent arms in the system all season.
Henry Godbout (AA, SS, Rank: 13) · put together six hits, a double, a homer, six RBI, four walks, and a hit-by-pitch across 25 plate appearances. He is a 55 hit tool and a patient hitter, carrying a 13.4 percent combined walk rate across three levels this year. The strikeout rate has spiked at Double-A to 27.4 percent in 62 plate appearances, a number to watch as Portland's pitching tests the contact quality more seriously; the last 30 days show a 22.2 percent figure, which is slightly better. Projects as a bench infielder at second base, but the bat has held up at each level well enough to keep the conversation going.
Leighton Finley (A, RHP, Rank: 39) · fanned nine batters over six scoreless innings on six hits and two walks, generating 17 whiffs. His fastball sits 94-98 and the five-pitch mix gives him the physical ingredients for a back-end starter, but a 4.69 ERA and 1.58 WHIP across 96 innings at Low-A Salem reflect a command profile that is still closer to 45 than 55. The nine strikeouts were the week's best showing, and the 17 whiffs on 90 pitches suggest the stuff can miss bats when the location cooperates.
Louis Andujar (A, 3B, Rank: 18) · reached base six times in 19 plate appearances, going 3-for-11 with a homer, four walks, and two hit-by-pitches. He is slashing .305/.468/.525 over his last 30 days at Salem with a 15.6 percent walk rate and three home runs in 77 plate appearances. At 18 years old in full-season ball, those on-base numbers are unusual; the 23.4 percent strikeout rate for the season is the contact concern to monitor as pitchers throw better sequences his way, but the combination of walk discipline and power flash at this age earns a real second look.
Brooks Brannon (AA, 1B, Rank: 36) · went 5-for-20 with a double, a homer, and four RBI, drawing two walks in 20 plate appearances. His 20th home run of the season at Double-A Portland makes 2026 his best power output by a wide margin after just 10 in 383 combined plate appearances last year. The season slugging sits at .570 with a 10.5 percent walk rate, numbers that make the 40-grade hit tool and 29.4 percent strikeout rate look more manageable. He has been trending the right direction in August, hitting .299/.382/.552 over his last 30 days.
Carlos Gutierrez (A+, LF, Rank: 30) · was placed on the 7-day injured list by the Greenville Drive retroactive to August 27. No diagnosis has been confirmed. His last appearance before the placement was August 23. Through 415 combined plate appearances between Greenville and Eugene this season, Gutierrez is hitting .271/.385/.441 with nine home runs and 26 steals.