De La Rosa impressing Red Sox at camp

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- One pitcher that Red Sox fans should pay close attention to this spring is Rubby De La Rosa, the righty who was a centerpiece in the blockbuster trade with the Dodgers last August for Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.

De La Rosa underwent Tommy John surgery in 2011. But the Red Sox have him on a more conservative program than the one for John Lackey. The righty will pitch in two-inning stints for all of Spring Training.

While special assistant to the general manager Pedro Martinez has spent a lot of time this spring with De La Rosa, manager John Farrell has also seen the righty enough to be impressed.

"He's been impressive, not just in terms of the sheer stuff, but his ability to manipulate the baseball," said Farrell. "He's got a good feel for his changeup, he can throw his breaking ball for strikes. But we're dealing with a set of circumstances that are different than John's coming off Tommy John. We'll be a little bit more slow-paced with Rubby, but he's been impressive early on. We'll keep him to those two-inning stints throughout camp."