This under-the-radar Red Sox prospect keeps stacking up K's in his latest High-A start
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Both the first and 84th pitch Devin Futrell threw Tuesday night went to nearly the exact same spot. One was a heater that a batter swung through, the other was a backdoor curveball that left a hitter frozen. Both offerings were emblematic of a career-best 12-strikeout performance for the 23-year-old.
Futrell helped steer High-A Greenville to a 2-0 victory over Asheville at Flour Field, striking out each of the first five batters he faced. There was just one frame in which the left-hander didn’t record a K, making up for it by notching at least two in every other inning.
As if 12 strikeouts weren't impressive enough, Futrell got all of them vs. right-handed batters. Entering the night, he had run rather traditional splits with eight of the nine homers hit off him in 2026 coming via the righties. Following his latest standout effort, he has a sub-1.00 WHIP against hitters from either side of the box.
Futrell rotated through three putaway offerings Tuesday. He whiffed the first two batters of the game on changeups, then let his curveball dance. Here’s how the punchouts -- eight swinging, four looking -- broke down:
Curveball: 6
Fastball: 3
Changeup: 3
Back in 2021, Futrell was on MLB Pipeline’s Top 250 Draft Prospects list, with evaluators dreaming on what his 6-foot-5 frame could be once he filled it out and honed his pitch repertoire. Despite being ranked No. 224 overall, the southpaw headed to Vanderbilt, where he spent three seasons in the starting rotation.
The Red Sox went slightly overslot in the 10th round of the 2024 Draft to sign Futrell for $250,000, giving them another alumnus of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Florida, within the organization (along with Tristan Casas, 2018). The southpaw completely overpowered two A ball levels in his debut campaign in 2025, leading the organization (minimum of 60 innings) in ERA (1.87). But he did it without missing very many bats -- his 10.5 percent swinging strike rate and K/9 (5.7) were among the bottom five of all Sox Minor League hurlers.
Futrell has flipped the script for the latter two categories in 2026. Following his latest outing, he is up to 63 K’s in 56 frames, and he’s done it all while remaining extremely stingy in the free passes department. His 63/9 K/BB ratio (7.0) is tied for third-best in the Minors among all hurlers with 50 innings under their belts.
Futrell began this year's campaign with Single-A Salem. After winning Carolina League Pitcher of the Week honors on April 12, the Red Sox bumped him up to the South Atlantic League, where he ripped off three consecutive starts with one run allowed or fewer.
The southpaw has been particularly locked in over his past two outings, spinning a combined 13 scoreless frames while striking out 17, walking one and allowing four hits. In four starts this month, hitters have mustered just a .198 average against him.
It’s been a season of highs (the emergence of Top 100 prospect Anthony Eyanson) and lows (the season-ending injury to Juan Valera) for Red Sox pitching prospects. Even though Payton Tolle and Connelly Early have recently graduated to Fenway full time, there’s still ample arm talent, as evidenced by 11 of the top 20 and 15 of the Top 30 Red Sox prospects plying their trade on the hill.
And that doesn’t even factor in Futrell, who has grown into his swing-and-miss stuff and is looking the part of a future addition in his own right.