Connelly Early Showed Off Revamped Sweeper in First Start for Portland: 'Was Nice to See Success'

Steven Kiebach

The Red Sox prospect trio of Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony, and Marcelo Mayer steal a lot of the thunder when talking about Boston’s farm system. For good reason as well, as all three are ranked in just about every prospect list inside the top 20 in all of baseball.

So, who is coming after the Big 3?

While there are many names to choose from as that next tier behind those top guys, Connelly Early is rising rapidly up the standings as we begin the 2025 season and for good reason. If you looked at just about any publication that posts prospect rankings, his name has started to creep inside the top-10 in the organization.

Early was a 5th round draft choice out of the University of Virginia in the 2023 MLB Draft. The left-hander started the 2024 season in High-A Greenville’s rotation and posted a 3.72 ERA over 67.2 innings pitched. That showing earned him a promotion to Double-A Portland where he threw 36 innings to end the season.

Fast forward to 2025, Early finds himself back in Portland’s starting rotation and was lights out in his first start of the year.

“I’m really happy to just be back out competing again,” Early said of his first start. “It was amazing to see the team go out and show all of the hard work and preparation we have endured over the past couple months. My main focus for my outing was to attack hitters and stay in control of the game. I worked on the sweeper a lot this past off season so it was nice to see success with it during my outing.”

The sweeper was a new pitch added to the arsenal just last season. The 23-year-old features a fastball, changeup, and slider to along with the new sweeper.

The Virginia native induced 9 swings and misses in the outing, which he has his changeup to thank for that.

“Although I wasn’t able to have my best stuff in the zone, my changeup allowed me to keep hitters uncomfortable,” Early noted. “Rosario did a solid job calling the game and allowing my pitches to play off of each other. My mentality stays the same and I want to go out there and compete to be the best version of myself. It’s a long season, you’re going to go through peaks and valleys. Every week my goal is to put my team in the best position to win. Definitely nice to go out set the tone and start on a good note.”

Early has now made 9 starts at Double-A after making 15 starts for High-A Greenville. If the results keep adding up how they have been, Early should be knocking on the door of Triple-A Worcester post all-star break.