2025 SoxProspects.com Awards: Graduate, Homegrown, and Ex-Prospect
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We continue our SoxProspects.com Awards coverage with the 2025 Graduate, Homegrown Player, and Ex-Prospect of the year. The Graduate and Homegrown honorees both made significant contributions to the big-league club this year, while the Ex-Prospect Award recipient is someone who started the year in the middle of Boston's lineup.
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Graduate of the Year: Roman Anthony
Anthony cemented himself as the top prospect in baseball in his two-plus months to begin the year in Worcester. He hit .288/.423/.491 with almost as many walks as strikeouts as a 20-year-old (turned 21 on May 13) in the International League. He was the Red Sox Minor League Hitter of the Month and the SoxProspects.com Player of the Month in April. When last year's winner of this award, Wilyer Abreu, went down with an oblique injury on June 9, Anthony was called up to take his place in right field. His performance barely took a dip in going from Triple-A to the majors, as he hit .292/.396/.463 over 71 games before an oblique injury ended his regular season on September 2.
From June 9 through September 2, Anthony was the best hitter on the Red Sox and a top-25 hitter in all of baseball. Additionally, he graded out well in advanced metrics for baserunning and fielding, and he ranked 16th in position player fWAR in the time he was in the lineup. He signed an eight-year extension that will keep him under contract through at least 2033 with a club option for 2034. Fangraphs ranked him 42nd in Trade Value back in July, but that was before he signed his contract and while he still had a relatively small sample size in the majors. Odds are he will be much higher on that list in the 2026 edition.
While Carlos Narváez was technically a ranked prospect heading into this season who graduated, he was not considered for this award as he never played a minor league game in the Boston system. Narváez was one of the most important players on the Red Sox this year, stabilizing the catching spot in an organization that has limited depth at the position.
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Homegrown Player of the Year: Brayan Bello
The heavy favorite going into the year for this award was Jarren Duran who won it last year after posting 6.8 fWAR while finishing eighth in the 2024 American League MVP voting. Duran still had a solid season, but his numbers dropped across the board while Bello took a big step forward. The right-hander lowered his ERA from 4.49 in 2024 to 3.35 in 2025 while going 11-9 in 28 starts. He struck out 124 over 166 2/3 innings and the sinkerballer benefited from improved infield defense. The 26-year-old had a solid lead for this award through August as he was 10-6 with a 2.99 ERA at that time, but he struggled in September. In 25 innings in September he pitched to a 5.40 ERA while going 1-3. His struggles continued in his wild card start against the Yankees.
Despite the late-season struggles, it was a great year for Bello who threw over 150 innings for the third straight season. He added a cutter in 2025 that was his third-most used pitch, and the Red Sox will hope his late-season swoon was just normal tiring/regression rather than a change in talent level. Bello will need to keep improving if he wants to win back-to-back awards in 2026. He will face stiff competition from Duran, Abreu, Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, and rookies Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, and Marcelo Mayer.
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Ex-Prospect of the Year: Rafael Devers
This was jokingly going to be renamed the Mookie Betts Award since he won it four years straight after joining the Dodgers. Betts was very much in consideration this year despite hitting a career-low .258 as he was an above-average defensive shortstop for Los Angeles. But the win goes to Devers who hit 35 home runs and drove in 109 between his time in Boston and San Francisco.
Devers's season got off to an extremely slow start as he went 0 for 19 over his first five games as the Red Sox started 1-4. He turned things around over his final 68 games in Boston, batting .292/.418/.542 with 15 home runs and 57 RBI. The 57 RBI were fourth in the majors over that time period. His first 60 games with the Giants were pretty nondescript as he hit .226/.335/.407 with 26 RBI as his team struggled to a 23-37 record. He was primarily a designated hitter during this time, but he did begin to see action at first base near the end of July. The 28-year-old turned things around over the final 30 games as the Giants made a push for the final wild card spot. He hit .254/.370/.561 with 10 home runs, but ultimately finished two games out of the playoff picture.
One fun statistical quirk for Devers is that he played in 163 games this season due to the midseason trade. The extra plate appearances were enough to push him past Betts, who played 150 games for the Dodgers. Devers did go 2 for 4 with a home run in his 163rd game.
Photo Credit: Roman Anthony, Brayan Bello, Rafael Devers by Kelly O'Connor