On Friday, in a preview of their upcoming Spring Breakout matchup with the Twins, the Red Sox lined up their top three pitchers from the 2025 draft one after the other. Three electric righthanders from the Southeastern Conference: first-rounder Kyson Witherspoon (Oklahoma), supplemental first-rounder Marcus Phillips (Tennessee) and third-rounder Anthony Eyanson (LSU).
In total, the three pitchers netted $9.25 million in bonus and injected Boston’s system with arm talent that combined ceiling and polish. Unsurprisingly, all three rank in the top half of the organization’s Top 30 Prospects.
Over eight innings of velocity, spin and empty swings, it was easy to see why the Red Sox’s scouting department settled on Witherspoon, Phillips and Eyanson.
Kyson Witherspoon
Witherspoon got the start and handled the first two innings. From a deceptive, frenetic, stretch-only delivery with a short arm action, he mixed a quintet of pitches, including four-seam and cut fastballs, a tight slider and occasional curveball and changeup.
The four-seamer sat in the mid 90s and peaked at 98 while the cutter hovered in the low 90s and was the finisher for one of his three strikeouts. The other two punchouts concluded on nasty sliders against Brandon Winokur and James McCombs.
Witherspoon finished the day with four whiffs over his two frames and showed the kind of mix that should allow him to handle righties and lefties, especially if he can tighten his curveball—which is more of a strike-stealer at this point—and changeup into more consistent weapons.
Anthony Eyanson
Eyanson followed Witherspoon and handled the next three innings. Like his counterpart from Oklahoma, Eyanson also worked from the stretch only, as was the case at LSU. Eyanson’s arm stroke is longer in the back but he still repeats his high three-quarters delivery well and shows the kind of excellent strength throughout his lower half that allows him to finish without spinning off.
There are times, however, when he gets a little bit side-to-side and costs himself a touch of command and control. His pure stuff, however, is excellent. In this outing, his fastball showed a velocity uptick from college and sat in the mid 90s while peaking at 98. He married the fastball with a pair of powerful breaking balls, including a tight slider in the mid 80s and a downer curveball a couple of ticks slower.
Eyanson finished his outing with four strikeouts and eight whiffs, including a particularly nasty sequence that saw Winokur swing over the top of an 88 mph changeup for strike two and then wave at a slider with the same velocity for the third strike. In a shorter look, Eyanson showed the ability to miss bats with an overpowering array of pitches.
Marcus Phillips
The game’s last three innings were handled by Phillips, who started Saturdays for Tennessee after lefty Liam Doyle had done his usual dazzling work on Fridays. The righthander is powerfully built at 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds and has the kind of stuff one would expect from such a frame. He is the only pitcher of the trio to utilize the windup, and his arm stroke is long in the back with a low, flat finish through release and some occasional instability in his lower half in his follow through.
His mechanics give his mid-90s heater natural cutting life through the zone. He also showed a single 96 mph sinker with nasty dive toward the back foot of righty-hitting Rayne Doncon for a whiff. He backed the fastballs with a sweepy 84-88 mph slider. Though the pitch was inconsistent in this outing, at its best it showed wipeout potential. He also mixed in an occasional changeup in the low 90s, including one that broke the bat of a lefthanded hitter. He struck out four hitters and garnered six swings and misses.
Juan Valera
On the field for the Triple-A game, Juan Valera looked noticeably thicker and showed some of the same knockout stuff that helped put him on the map a year ago at this time. He brought his fastball up to 100 mph and backed it with his signature low-90s changeup with powerful trap-door action. He mixed in a pair of sliders—one with gyro break and the other with more sweep action. He drew five whiffs in two innings—three on changeups and two on breaking balls.