Red Sox Predicted To Snap 8-Year Streak, Bring Flamethrower To Boston

Over the last few years, the Boston Red Sox have prioritized young bats in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft.

Boston hasn't taken a pitcher in the first round of the draft since selecting Tanner Houck with the No. 24 overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft. Since then, it's been all bats in the first round. While this is the case, The Sporting Tribune's Taylor Blake Ward predicted that the Red Sox will break the streak and pick right-handed pitcher Tyler Bremner out of UC-Santa Barbara.

"No. 15. Boston Red Sox - Tyler Bremner, RHP, UC-Santa Barbara," Blake Ward said. "It's hard to move past the noise on Fien, but also hard to ignore what Boston did last year in the draft with pitching and aversion to preps. I still think Fien is very much in play, as would be Cunningham or Hall.

"With Boston running so much of their development through philosophy and overhauling their pitching philosophy, it's not surprising to hear names like Witherspoon, Bremner and Wood come up here. A handful of college bats also get mentioned in the likes of Irish, Kilen and Summerhill."

Right now, Bremner is the No. 18 overall prospect in the draft class, per MLB.com.

"Entering the spring, the hope was that Bremner would continue to show the makings of three plus pitches, but it hasn’t worked out that way," MLB.com said. "His fastball is still averaging around 95 mph and touching 98 with good ride, lighting up the radar gun with little effort and with some feeling there's room for growth and more velocity to come in pro ball. His best secondary offering is his easily plus changeup that some scouts hang a 70 grade on. He'll throw it to any hitter in any count, and it stays on the fastball plane for a long time with late, hard fade, missing bats at a 46-percent clip in 2024. One of his bigger issues this spring has been that his 86-88 mph slider with gyro-type shape has backed up -- he's struggled to throw it for strikes -- and he’s been more of a two-pitch pitcher.

"Bremner is still answering questions about durability, as this is his first full season of starting. But he's generally around the strike zone and is capable of missing bats with all three offerings. Even with some of the question marks this spring, he’s still firmly in the first-round picture."

The MLB Draft will begin on July 13th.