How new acquisition Jake Bennett fits the Red Sox pitching mold
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Mountains, hosses, hog mollies ... the Red Sox front office seems to have a type when it comes to pitchers: physical specimens who could double as linebackers during the offseason.
Craig Breslow, Boston's chief baseball officer, reinforced that notion when he acquired 6-foot-6 left-hander Jake Bennett from the Nationals in exchange for flamethrowing righty Luis Perales on Dec. 15. Bennett slotted right in as the Red Sox No. 7 prospect.
The rare prospect-for-prospect swap reunited Perales (WSH No. 5) with Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, who had worked his way up to Red Sox assistant GM over 10 years in the organization prior to joining Washington in September.
As for Bennett, the 25-year-old is the exact type of pitching prospect Breslow has targeted during his tenure. Let’s dig into why.
Size
Breslow has helmed the Red Sox front office for two Drafts. Over that span, the club has selected 28 pitchers with an average height and weight of 6-foot-4, 215 pounds. In other words, they don't shy away from big dudes.
The highest-ranked player from this group is MLB’s No. 28 prospect Payton Tolle (6-foot-6, 250 pounds). The hulking left-hander, selected in 2024 out of Texas Christian University, gained several ticks on his fastball after just one season working Boston's pitching program. In college, Tolle sat at 91 mph with his fastball and peaked at 96. Throughout 2025, the 65-grade offering averaged 95 and reached 99 while becoming one of the most powerful pitches in the Minors.
Standing 6-foot-6 at 234 pounds, Bennett’s body is similarly monumental. The 2022 second-rounder, who underwent Tommy John surgery in '23, returned to the mound this summer with positive results. Over 19 appearances (18 starts), he posted a 2.27 ERA with a 1.08 WHIP across three levels.
Bennett made up some of his lost innings during the Arizona Fall League as well. He posted a 4.50 ERA over 20 innings while averaging 93.8 mph on his heater and peaking at 95.5 mph on the hitter-friendly circuit. Considering the southpaw's size and the recency of his surgery, the velocity numbers should only increase in his new organization.
Earlier this offseason, Tolle told the Boston Globe that Connelly Early (BOS No. 4) was putting on muscle to fit in with the Red Sox "mooses on the mound" in 2026. No bulking necessary for Bennett, he already fits the bill.
Extension
This has been a popular topic in recent years. The extension statistic measures how far from the rubber the pitcher releases the pitch. The greater the extension, the more uncomfortable the at-bat.
Imagine facing a big league arm on a Little League diamond; 95 mph would feel a lot faster coming in from 46 feet. Pitchers with elite extension -- like Tolle, for instance -- create this same effect, and Bennett fits a similar model.
The Oklahoma product averaged 7.02 feet of extension in the Fall League, a mark that would rank in the 93rd percentile among Major League pitchers in 2025. While there are dozens of other factors that impact player success, Bennett’s extension is comparable to that of Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. The 2025 NL Cy Young Award runner-up averages 7.0 inches of extension at the same height as Bennett.
This offseason, the Red Sox also acquired right-hander Johan Oviedo from the Pirates, giving them another arm with size (6-foot-6, 275 pounds) and elite extension (7.3 feet).
Polish
If you look strictly at walk rates, the difference between Bennett (6 percent) and Perales (18 percent) is clear. The latter has tantalizing arm talent, but it has led to some erratic pitches.
With electric stuff comes walks, and with those free passes comes reliever risk. In Bennett’s case, his future as a starting pitcher is more of a sure thing -- something Breslow made clear after the trade.
"We believe we are getting a Major League-caliber starting pitcher,” he told MLB.com’s Ian Browne after the trade. “The combination of whiff and strikes is unique, and we started to see the performance catch up in the AFL."
Like Early, Bennett’s arsenal centers around a 60-grade changeup. The pitch produced a 40.3 percent whiff rate in the AFL, a percentage on par with the top Major League cambios in 2025. Last season Boston's Worcester affiliate threw the fifth-highest percentage of changeups among Triple-A teams (12.4 percent). With Bennett likely spending most of the 2026 season with the WooSox, he'll have ample opportunity to showcase, and sharpen, his best pitch.
Bennett pairs his plus changeup with a four-seamer, a slider and a sinker. In his debut season in 2023, he struck out batters at a 28.3 percent clip. This past summer, that number was only 21.5, but as he continues to work his way back to full strength, Boston is banking on Bennett returning to his previous form -- and then some.