The Boston Red Sox entered 2025 with high-minors pitching depth as a strength. Richard Fitts, Hunter Dobbins and Cooper Criswell all had cases to be regular pieces of the rotation.
The front office believed starting pitching was an area of depth and decided to trade Quinn Priester to the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for a prospect and a competitive balance pick. That pick later turned out to be right-hander Marcus Phillips.
Priester was acquired at the 2024 trade deadline. His only appearance for the Red Sox was the final game of 2024, in which he allowed one run in five innings.
The righty has never had overpowering stuff. His fastball is only about 93 mph and has been hit hard previously. His breaking balls have shown flashes, but they’ve never been consistent. He’s also struggled heavily against lefties in his career due to his lack of a putaway pitch.
On Friday, however, he put in one of the best outings of his career when he struck out 10 Los Angeles Dodgers over six innings. He allowed three hits, no runs, and needed just 77 pitches to do so.
The major change for Priester is that he added a cutter. He’s throwing it backdoor early in counts against lefties for called strikes, as well as to freeze hitters with two strikes.
Over 18 appearances, Priester has a 3.33 ERA. His strikeout rate is fairly low at 20.4%, although that mark is higher than in previous seasons. It’s difficult to believe Priester’s success will continue, given the quality of contact opponents have made against him. His fastballs in particular have been hit hard, which could lead to blowup outings against good opponents.
While the Red Sox are in the market for starting pitching, Priester doesn’t have the ceiling of the type of pitcher they’re looking for.
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