5 Red Sox breakout candidates making themselves undeniable in spring training

The Boston Red Sox surpassed expectations last season with a young core headlined by Roman Anthony. Despite trading Rafael Devers early in the year, Boston made the playoffs. However, the 2026 season offers far more promise, as this group is a year older and more talented. Those stars will need help from unheralded contributors, though, if they plan on making a postseason run come October.

Spring training is always a tough nut to crack. Figuring out which players you’ve never heard of will be stepping up to the plate with the bases loaded and the pennant on the line can be a tough task, particularly since trying to explain the concept of an MLB farm system to someone who only kind of follows the MLB makes you sound like an insane person. Boston, in particular, is a tough nut to crack.

Johan Oviedo

Oviedo was the centerpiece of a trade that sent Jhostynxon Garcia, an interesting Red Sox prospect from last year, to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and there has been a lot of press in Red Sox circles around who will be the Red Sox fifth starter come regular season behind Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suarez, Sonny Gray and Brayan Bello. Now, it looks like Oviedo will be that guy.

In four spring training starts and 11.1 innings pitched, Oviedo has 14 Ks and has surrendered only 8 hits and 2 earned runs. He’s been a professional pitcher who won’t need to be leaned on as much as Boston’s other starters, which bodes well for the 28-year-old. And if Oviedo falters, the Red Sox actually have options behind him; a Red Sox rotation that completely fell apart towards the end of last season now has the depth to survive a 162-game season. 

Oviedo’s spot is also the result of wanting younger options to get more time to marinate in the minors, with Payton Tolle and Connelly Early — Boston’s first and third ranked prospects per SoxProspects.com (a GREAT site for Red Sox prospect info, shoutout to all the great work they do) — both making MLB starts last year but almost certainly starting in Worcester this time around. It’s possible one or both of them are in the majors come August, but for now, it’s Oviedo.

Braiden Ward

Who’s the single-season record holder in stolen bases? Did you perhaps say “Ricky Henderson”? Well, you’d be wrong, because the question was actually about SPRING TRAINING and the answer is Braiden Ward, who stole his 17th base to break the spring training record. What an accomplishment.

Ward also had his 15 minutes of fame by picking up the base like Henderson did when he broke the all-time record in 1991. Which is, objectively, awesome.

And while such a cool story would not actually qualify Ward to make this list, I wouldn’t be surprised if he make an impact for Boston as a pinch runner at some point this year … if for no other reason than the Red Sox are seriously lacking pinch speed after trading David Hamilton. Anyone who’s watched October baseball knows that a pinch runner can make all the difference. Anyone who watched Red Sox October baseball specifically in 2004 really knows. 

Andruw Monasterio

“Accidentally became important at work this week,” might be an apt way to describe what is about to happen with Andruw Monasterio, the 28-year-old “quadruple A” utility man that Boston acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers in the trade that dealt Kyle Harrison and the aforementioned David Hamilton. Monasterio is one of those players who has never really cracked an everyday role in the MLB but plays a good amount; Red Sox fans will remember Nate Eaton from last year doing work in that role for the outfield.

With Alex Bregman gone and Marcelo Mayer’s Opening Day role very much in flux, the Red Sox were aiming to have Romy Gonzalez as their main utility infielder with new guy Caleb Durbin playing third base. However, Gonzalez just hit the 60-Day IL after having shoulder surgery, and now Monasterio might have more than a small part to play. 

He’s slashed decently well in spring training, and now it feels all but guaranteed that he will make the roster as a DH-infielder combo. And the Red Sox will need him for real until they figure out their second and third base situations. If you’ve been in any Boston baseball social circles this winter, you will know how happy we are about the current state of the infield. We’re not. We are not happy.

Payton Tolle

Tolle is pretty unlikely to make the Opening Day roster, but has been working on his game in a real way lately, reportedly ratcheting up to triple digits with his fastball. In his few starts last year, his fastball was basically his only usable pitch, but it is quite usable. The question now is how far he can take his secondaries, particularly his slider, to become an actual starter in the MLB. 

If you literally do not care about any of that, here is a video of Tolle giving a presentation about the United States to his teammates. It’s hilarious. In fact, just Google “Payton Tolle quotes” and you’ll get some great stuff. You’re welcome.

Honorable Mention: Justin Gonzales

One of the best Red Sox stories in training camp was Justin Gonzales' height and weight, given he came in listed at 6-4, 210 pounds and was promptly updated to 6-7, 270. This led to a pretty epic day on Red Sox X communities of seeing how much one could embellish that number before anyone noticed. Justin Gonzales clocks in at 7’2 425 POUNDS!! And he’s still only 19.

Gonzales is nowhere close to playing in the MLB, but projects to be a fascinating project for the Red Sox organization after he laced a 117.3 mph single, the fifth-hardest hit ball by any Red Sox player in the statcast era. He still has years to go before we’ll know if he’ll be an impact player in the big leagues, but Gonzalez has insane power potential. In a world that prizes exit velocity, it’s worth following.

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