Relentless Roniel Raudes Impresses

Roniel Raudes (Photo by Tony Farlow)

BOSTON—Eddie Romero first saw Roniel Raudes as a 14-year-old pitching in a tournament in Mexico. The radar gun didn’t light up for the lanky righthander from Nicaragua, but even with a three-pitch mix headed at the time by an 80 mph fastball, Romero—then international scouting director—couldn’t help but take notice.

“He was a bulldog at 14 years old,” Romero said. “His competitiveness and pitchability stood out. He looked like a veteran. When things went wrong, it didn’t matter.”

That same makeup allowed the Red Sox to assign Raudes to low Class A Greenville in 2016. When Boston traded teammate Anderson Espinoza to the Padres in July, Raudes became the youngest pitcher in the South Atlantic League. Yet his precocious demeanor allowed him to more than hold his own against older opponents.

Raudes assumed an older starter’s workload by logging 113.1 innings over 24 starts. His relentless strike-throwing with a three-pitch mix permitted him to forge a 3.65 ERA while striking out 8.3 batters per nine innings.

Raudes, who signed in 2014, showed what projects as a likely average mix of three pitches—a fastball that runs 88-91 mph, a curveball and a changeup that is his most promising swing-and-miss weapon. But his ability to locate, to create deception and avoid patterns helped Raudes perform at Class A while also giving him a chance as a big league starter.

“His stuff plays up because he throws three pitches for strikes with command and knows how to sequence,” Greenville manager Darren Fenster said. “He gets a ton of swings and misses on what on the surface might not look like above-average stuff. It’s been very impressive.

“He’s not a guy who rears back and throws as hard as he can without any idea where it’s going. He really has a sense of what he’s doing. It’s impressive for any age, but for a kid who (was) the youngest in the league, it’s even moreso.”

SOX YARNS

• Mauricio Dubon has played center field for Surprise in the Arizona Fall League, the first time in his four-season pro career that he played a position outside the infield.

• The Red Sox promoted Romero to assistant general manager after he spent five years overseeing the team’s international amateur scouting efforts.