🚨 INSIDE PITCHING SURPRISE: The Red Sox just added a massive 6 foot 6 left handed arm to their starting rotation plans, and the size, profile, and timing of this move are already raising eyebrows across the league. What Boston believes this pitcher can become may hint at a much bigger vision quietly taking shape behind the scenes.

The Boston Red Sox in September lost one of their most promising front office executives to the Washington Nationals, when Washington hired Paul Toboni as their new president of baseball operations. Just three months later, Toboni and his former boss, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, made a rare move — a one-for-one swap of top pitching prospects, according to the Red Sox official MLB.com transactions page.

According to minor league baseball expert Keith Law of The Athletic, Monday’s trade was a “win-win,” with both organizations gaining a pitcher who meets their current needs. For the Red Sox, that pitcher is physically imposing left-hander Jake Bennett, the Nationals’ No. 11 prospect as ranked by MLB Pipeline, who immediately jumps into the No. 7 spot on the Red Sox rankings.

The 25-year-old Bennett, drafted in the 2022 second round out of Oklahoma, stands 6-foot-6 with a listed weight of 234 pounds, a similar build to Red Sox’s top pitching prospect, No. 2 overall in their system, Payton Tolle — who like Bennett is a native of Oklahoma.

It may not be a coincidence that two of the Red Sox’s top three pitching prospects hail from the Sooner State. In fact, three of the top four are Oklahomans. Their No. 8 overall prospect, righty David Sandlin, is also a native of the state and was drafted from the same university as Bennett, also in 2022 albeit in the 11th round by the Kansas City Royals.

The Red Sox acquired Sandlin when Breslow traded reliever John Schneider to Kansas City in 2024.

Boston has two other Oklahoman pitchers in its system as well. Barrett Morgan was taken in the 11th round this year, and in 2023 — the last draft overseen by Breslow’s predecessor Chaim Bloom — left reliever Isaac Stebens was picked in the 16th round out of Oklahoma State.

Sandlin and Bennett were Sooners teammates.

According to Law, Bennett “should pitch in the majors this year,” most likely as a midseason call-up “when Boston needs a starter.” The southpaw prospect is essentially a control pitcher.

“He throws strikes and always has,” Law reported. “He walked 6.4 percent of batters he faced during 2025, 6.2 percent in 2023 before he got hurt, and 4.5 percent at Oklahoma in his draft year in 2022.”

To acquire Bennett, the Red Sox sent their former No. 5 prospect Luis Perales, who was signed by Boston in 2019 when current Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was still doing that job for the Red Sox. A native of Guacara, Venezuela, Perales was signed for a modest $75,000 bonus, but rose in the prospect rankings thanks in part to a fastball that has been clocked as high as 101 mph.

Perales, seen as a potential bullpen addition by the Nationals according to Law, is still making his comeback from a 2024 Tommy John surgery. Bennett underwent the procedure as well, in 2023.

Bennett is the third pitcher standing at least 6-foot-5 acquired by Breslow and the Red Sox this month. He acquired 6-foot-6, 275-pound Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Dec. 4, and traded with the Athletics for their Rule 5 draft pick, 6-foot-5, 225-pound Ryan Watson on Wednesday.

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