Williams Jerez Stats & Scouting Report

IP	7
ERA	10.29
WHIP	2
BB/9	2.57
SO/9	11.57

Full name Williams A. Jerez
Born 05/16/1992 in Santiago, Dominican Republic
Profile Ht.: 6'4" / Wt.: 210 / Bats: L / Throws: L
School Grand Street Educational Campus
Debut 08/07/2018
Drafted in the 2nd round (81st overall) by the Boston Red Sox in 2011 (signed for $443,700).

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Jerez moved from the Dominican Republic with his father two years ago. He originally drew interest as a lefthander, but he has more potential as a center fielder and has generated a lot of buzz this spring after playing in Florida for Hank's Yanks, a team sponsored by Yankees owner Hank Steinbrenner. Jerez's 6-foot-4, 190-pound frame is what one scout described as "about as good a body as you could imagine." He has a wiry strong build and should add bulk as he matures. He has average raw power, with loft and leverage in his swing, which has a tendency to get long. Some scouts worry how he will fare against premium velocity, but his bat speed has improved even since March. Jerez has a plus arm and plus speed, but it doesn't play down the line because he's slow out of the batter's box. There's no consensus on Jerez: Some scouts question his background and age and don't like his bat, while others project on his raw tools and athleticism.

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Organization Prospect Rankings

Track Record: Falling out of playoff contention in 2018 allowed the Angels to get a lengthy look at Jerez, part of the trade that sent Ian Kinsler to Boston. A converted outfielder who is now five years into his pitching career, Jerez showed flashes of the potential that could lead to a matchup reliever role.

Scouting Report: Jerez has a heavy four-seam fastball that averaged 95 mph in the big leagues and touches 98 and a sharp slider that averaged 88 mph from the left side. He also has a split-finger fastball that has been effective against righthanders. To take the next step, he must continue to drive his pitches down in the zone consistently and hone his mechanics so his delivery doesn't get out of sync.

The Future: Jerez has been dominant at Triple-A, and he has the stuff to pitch in a big league bullpen. Whether he fixes his delivery to throw more strikes will determine how much he pitches there in 2019.
As a converted outfielder who is now four years into his career as a pitcher, it's not surprising to see Jerez continuing to develop as he moves through the upper levels. The 2017 season represented a sizable step forward for the lefthanded reliever. Jerez has a heavy four-seam fastball that sits at 93-96 mph and a slider in the mid-to-high-80s that helped him hold lefties to a .182/.264/.221 with a 26.1 percent strikeout rate. He also developed a splitter this year that gave him a pitch that got righthanders off his fastball and helped him excel over a nearly two-month midsuummer stretch in Portland and pave the way for both a season-ending promotion to Triple-A and a return to the Red Sox's 40-man roster. The final step for Jerez is to drive his pitches down in the zone consistently and work to not get his delivery out of sync to the point that he yanks his fastball out of the zone. At the least, Jerez appears to have a good shot at emerging as a power left-on-left option, and if he can gain greater consistency with the splitter, he could emerge as a solid middle-innings contributor.
Drafted out of high school as a five-tool ball of clay, Jerez never progressed as an outfielder, hitting just .221 with a .529 OPS while spending three years in short-season ball. The decision to move Jerez to the mound for the 2014 season, then, changed his career course completely. He went from running in place to sprinting forward through the system as a lefthanded reliever. Given his conversion to the mound, Jerez has surprised with how quickly he's become a strike-thrower with a fastball that is often at 92-94 mph and a slider that features some tilt and bite. In 2015, he went from low Class A Greenville to high Class A Salem to Double-A Portland, recording a 2.54 ERA with 8.7 strikeouts and 3.1 walks per nine innings. He got enough swings and misses and bad contact with his fastball and showed enough promise with a secondary offering that the Red Sox believe that he can emerge as a power lefty with the potential to slot into the seventh or eighth inning.