On paper, the Boston Red Sox have arguably the deepest pitching rotation in the MLB. With the top four spots locked in with Garrett Crochet, Ranger Suárez, Sonny Gray, and Brayan Bello, the No. 5 spot remains up for grabs as spring training gets underway.
According to Red Sox beat reporter Chris Cotillo of MassLive, Boston views the No. 5 spot as an open competition between five guys as of Feb. 20.
Those five pitchers are newly acquired Johan Oviedo, veterans Kutter Crawford and Patrick Sandoval, and young phenoms Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.
“There’s a job to win,” Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. “There’s a lot of different things we can do with that spot. Even with the amount of off days we have early in the season, maximizing those. We want to, first and foremost, get everyone through camp healthy, hitting on their goals and what they want to accomplish in camp.”
Plenty of Options for Red Sox to Consider
There are three big factors to consider for Boston as it looks to find its No. 5 starter this season: the pitchers’ floor and ceiling, injury likelihood/who is coming off of an injury, and who has minor league options.
The latter of those questions is the easiest to answer: the only member of this competition without minor league options is Sandoval (minor league options allow players to be sent to the minor leagues without having to pass through waivers). This means Sandoval has an inside track to staying with the big league club in some capacity, solely because Boston could lose him if it tried to send him down to AAA Worcester.
But Sandoval could slot into a long-relief option in the bullpen if they don’t feel as high on him as a starter.
Crawford missed the entirety of the 2025 season as he recovered from a wrist injury. He had a decent season in 2024, and has arguably the highest floor of the crew, but also the lowest ceiling. Where any of the other four pitchers have the potential to be No. 2 or 3 starters in their career, Crawford will likely never be a top of the rotation guy.
Oviedo has the inside track to getting the No. 5 spot. Boston paid a high price to acquire him this offseason, and see him as having the highest ceiling of this crew, at least heading into this season. At 6-foot-6, 275 pounds, Oviedo has a thundering fastball with a deep arsenal of off-speed pitches that make him incredibly effective when healthy.
Tolle and Early With the Most to Prove
Tolle and Early both made their MLB debuts at the end of the 2025 season, and both quickly became fan favorites in Boston. Both left-handed, the two have opposite pitching styles; Tolle a power pitcher with a heavy fastball and Early a crafty off-speed merchant.
Because both are so young, they’ll likely need to wow the Red Sox coaching staff to have any chance of making the rotation out of spring training. Both have the highest long-term upside of anyone in this competition, but this has been seen as a developmental year for them, unless they truly show they’re ready for a full big league season.
Red Sox Deliver Blunt Warning For The Back End of Their Rotation