The Red Sox are turning to an unlikely arm to cover for Sonny Gray’s delayed September 1 start, and the name on the call-up card is Jedixson Paez.
Paez’s route back to Boston has been anything but ordinary. The right-hander signed with the Red Sox in January 2021 and was already starting games in the Dominican Summer League six months later.
From the beginning, the calling card was clear: command. The problem was the radar gun.
In 2021, Paez was sitting in the mid-80s, and by 2024 he had climbed to around 90 MPH with the ability to touch the low-90s.
He made it to High-A by 2025, but injuries cut that season down to just 19 1/3 innings. Then came the curveball.
The Chicago White Sox grabbed Paez in the Rule 5 Draft this offseason and threw him straight into the majors, even though he had never pitched in Double-A. The experiment barely lasted.
Paez appeared in three games, threw three innings, and gave up six runs before Chicago DFA’d him on April 1 and sent him back to Boston.
Once the Red Sox got him back, they placed him in Double-A so he could finally get a proper run at that level after already having big league experience with another organization. Since then, the numbers have been solid in a way that doesn’t fully jump off the page at first glance. Paez has posted a 4.11 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A this season, but the deeper indicators are much sharper: a .225 BAA, a 0.96 WHIP, a 1.03 BB/9, and a 10.57 K/9.
The stuff has played, too. Paez has a good changeup, some useful breaking balls, and a fastball that has taken a real step forward with the added velocity. The best part for Boston is that the strike-throwing hasn’t gone anywhere.
That profile should sound familiar to anyone who’s followed his rise: lots of strikes, a finesse-heavy mix, and the occasional ugly-looking frisbee of a pitch. The one limitation is workload.
He’s only gone five-plus innings twice this year, so Boston probably shouldn’t expect length. Still, five painless innings would be more than enough for a club dealing with rotation trouble.
For Paez, the journey has been wild: High-A, the majors with another team, back to the Red Sox, Double-A, Triple-A, and now back to the big leagues again. It’s one of the strangest seasonal paths you’ll see. For the Red Sox, it’s also a reminder that sometimes the most unusual route ends with a useful answer.
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Mickey Gaspers Wild Surge Just Gave Red Sox A Real Decision
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He was briefly sent back to Triple-A, only to find his way back soon after because of another injury elsewhere on the roster. For a club trying to sort out its lineup and keep its depth intact, Gaspers production has made this more than a temporary fill-in situation, and it leaves Boston with a real choice about how much leash his bat has earned. [Read more 🡒]