It took just 48 hours for Kyle Harrison to go from “a future star” with the San Francisco Giants to a guy lugging his bags into the WooSox clubhouse, unsure of where exactly he stood in the big picture for the Boston Red Sox.
The left-handed centerpiece of the Rafael Devers trade, Harrison was optioned to Triple-A Worcester immediately after his arrival on the East Coast, allowing him some time to get acclimated to his new situation before eventually taking the mound at Fenway Park to face the kind of pressure that few 23-year-olds ever encounter.
“Just crazy,” Harrison said of the realization that he was part of such a blockbuster deal.
And make no mistake, the Red Sox are optimistic that once Harrison joins the big-league team, he won’t be leaving for quite some time.
“We expect big things out of him, just like (the Giants) did,” Boston manager Alex Cora said.
Red Sox fans are sure hoping for that. It would make it a little easier to swallow one of Boston’s most controversial trades in recent memory.
Kyle Harrison Was MLB’s Top Left-Handed Pitching Prospect in 2023
When the Red Sox sent Devers — a homegrown superstar and the only true middle-of-the-order bat in the lineup — to the Giants, it wasn’t just a baseball decision. It was a seismic event.
Fans expected elite, major league-ready talent in return. In Harrison, they were getting a pitcher with a big arm and a hopeful future who was struggling in the present.
A third-round pick in the 2020 draft, Harrison began a steady climb through the Giants farm system, eventually becoming the team’s No. 1 prospect who was considered by many to be the top left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball. He made his MLB debut in August of the 2023 season and looked the part of a future ace over seven starts, but Harrison ran into a rough stretch in 2024 and underwhelmed with a 4.56 ERA and 1.34 WHIP in 24 starts, although Giants insider Alex Pavlovic stressed that those numbers were partially tainted by nagging injuries.
“He looked really, really good when he came up in 2023. He looked like a future star here,” Pavlovic said. “Last year, he tried to pitch through an ankle injury and tried to help these guys because they needed the rotation help, and that led to some shoulder inflammation and really just set him back the second half of last year and put him in a tough spot in the offseason.”
Still trying to work his way back to full health, Harrison opened the 2025 season with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento. After making six starts with the River Cats, he was recalled in early May by San Francisco, where he made eight appearances, including four starts, before the trade, going 1-1 with a 4.56 ERA.
But putting those numbers aside, Pavlovic stressed that Boston fans should be excited about what Harrison will bring to the team.
“He was throwing 96, 97 (mph), looked like the Kyle we saw two years ago,” Pavlovic said. “I will say, I mean, he is as mature a young man as I’ve ever covered here. So I think he’s gonna be a good one, I think the Red Sox did very well there.”
Giants Insider Stresses Boston ‘Did Very Well’ in Acquiring Kyle Harrison
Since arriving in Worcester, Harrison has shown flashes of the upside that once made him nearly untouchable. He has not made a start yet – that is expected to come during this week’s road trip to face Scranton/Wilkes-Barre – but Harrison tossed a bullpen session soon after his arrival, just to get some work in, then threw about 50 pitches of batting practice to a few of his new teammates on Saturday.
The key for Harrison is his mid-to-upper-90s fastball that Red Sox director of pitching Justin Willard called “his bread and butter.” Coming from a low release point, the pitch arrives at a flat attack angle and gives batters a lot of problems.
“That fastball is real, it’s elite, it’s velo, it’s left handed,“ Willard said. “[We’re] really excited to build kind of the arsenal around that, making that the main event, and then [determine] what are the pitches he needs to be to have supplemental to that.”
Harrison came to the Red Sox with a curveball and a changeup, but the organization told him they would like to work on adding a cutter and a sinker to his arsenal. Ironically, Harrison said that he had been tinkering with just those types of pitches during recent bullpen sessions in San Francisco.
“So it’s funny now that it kind of comes full circle and I’m traded and they’re wanting me to throw those pitches here,” Harrison said.
“I think it’s just messing with another pitch, whether it’s adding something else or tinkering with a sinker or a gyro slider. I’m just excited for the opportunity and what we’re going to be experimenting here. I think it’ll open my eyes, and this is a great organization for it.”
Harrison likely won’t stay in Worcester very long, with Willard suggesting he would be “down here a couple of weeks.” Reports indicate that keeping Harrison in the minors through July 4 will give the Red Sox an extra year of control on his contract.
But regardless of when he finally gets to Boston, the team is confident that Harrison will be a key component in what it hopes will be a successful second half of the season.
“Whenever you get a left-handed starter with an exciting fastball sitting mid 90’s and interesting secondary pitches, it’s exciting,” said Red Sox senior director of player development Brian Abraham. “We are excited to get to know Kyle, continue to help him develop and ultimately be a big part of the rotation in Boston.”
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Red Sox Getting ‘A Future Star’ With Trade Acquisition appeared first on Heavy Sports.