Red Sox OF prospect Zach Ehrhard goes 5-for-5, hits first professional homer

Red Sox outfield prospect Zach Ehrhard checked off a pair of career firsts in High-A Greenville’s 9-6 victory over Hub City at Fluor Field on Wednesday afternoon.

Ehrhard went 5-for-5 out of the five-hole for the Drive. While recording the first five-hit game of his pro career, the 22-year-old crushed a 373-foot three-run shot over Greenville’s Green Monster off Spartanburgers starter Aidan Curry in the first inning for his first professional home run. He reached base four more times to finish the contest with five RBIs and two runs scored.

After getting his first full season in the professional ranks off to a relatively slow start, Ehrhard has heated up as of late. Following Wednesday’s strong showing, the right-handed hitter is now batting a stout .340/.464/.450 with eight doubles, one home run, 19 RBIs, 20 runs scored, seven stolen bases, 23 walks, and 26 strikeouts through 28 games (125 plate appearances) for Greenville this year.

Among 85 qualified South Atlantic League hitters coming into play on Thursday, Ehrhard ranks first in line-drive rate (37 percent), second in batting average, third in on-base percentage, fifth in wRC+ (164), sixth in wOBA (.435), seventh in swinging-strike rate (7.4 percent), eighth in walk rate (18.4 percent), ninth in OPS (.914), and 19th in slugging percentage and strikeout rate (20.8 percent), per FanGraphs.

Defensively, Ehrhard has seen playing time at all three outfield positions for Greenville this season. The athletic 5-foot-10, 190-pounder has logged a team-leading 87 innings in left field, 77 1/3 innings in right field, and 52 innings in center field, committing no errors and recording one assist in 35 total chances. He has also made three starts at DH.

A Florida native, Ehrhard was originally selected by the Red Sox in the 13th round of the 2021 draft out of Wharton High School in Tampa. He turned down the opportunity to go pro at that time and instead played collegiately at Oklahoma State for three seasons, only to be drafted by the Red Sox again in the fourth round (115th overall) following his junior year last summer.

This time around, Ehhard signed with Boston for an under-slot $500,000 in late July and made the jump straight to Greenville for his professional debut shortly after putting pen to paper. Though he struggled some in his first stint with the Drive last year (.459 OPS in 22 games), he is currently showing why Baseball America tabbed him as the “best pure hitter” in Boston’s 2024 draft class.

Ehrhard, who does not turn 23 until January, is not currently regarded among the Red Sox’ top 30 prospects by publications such as Baseball America or MLB Pipeline. He is, however, ranked by SoxProspects.com as the No. 43 prospect in Boston’s farm system, which is up four spots from where he was at this time a little more than a month ago.

Given how he has fared at the High-A level to this point, one would think a promotion to Double-A Portland could be on the horizon for Ehrhard. Such a move would reunite Zach with his older brother Drew, who plays for the Sea Dogs and is in his third season with the Red Sox organization after signing as an undrafted free agent out of Division II Tampa in July 2023.

“I would love that,” Zach said of potentially playing with Drew in a recent conversation with MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith. “ We’ve already talked about it a bunch because we got to be on the same team in spring training a couple of times, and that was a lot of fun. So hopefully we get to do it again.”