Mound Move Pays Off For Jerez

BOSTON—It wasn’t hard to daydream with Williams Jerez. From the time Red Sox northeast area scout Ray Fagnant started following him in the summer before his senior year of high school, Jerez stood out for his physicality and five-tool skill set, while also receiving tremendous marks for makeup.

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In one showcase contest at the Yankees’ spring training facility, Fagnant recalled, Jerez went 5-for-5 with a long homer, a triple, threw out a runner from the outfield and made an impact on the bases.

“He did everything,” Fagnant said. “He obviously showed some high school raw vulnerability to breaking balls, like they all do, but he showed all the makings of a top-flight prospect. … The big question mark with him, like everybody else, was how well the tools were going to play, and if he ultimately was going to be able to hit.”

He wasn’t. After the Sox took Jerez in the second round of the 2011 draft, he struggled offensively for three years, never advancing beyond short-season Lowell en route to a .221/.254/.275 line. In deference to those struggles, at the end of spring training in 2014, the organization asked Jerez to move to the mound.

Two years into his pitching career, Jerez is nearing that goal. The Sox added him to the 40-man roster this winter after the 6-foot-4 lefthander followed a strong debut in 2014 with an even better year across three full-season levels in 2015.

Jerez sprinted from low Class A Greenville to high Class A Salem to Double-A Portland, totaling a 2.54 ERA with 86 strikeouts and 31 walks in 88 innings. He has an easy delivery with a three-quarters arm slot that seems to generate some deception in allowing his fastball, typically 92-94 mph with occasional 95s, to get swings and misses. His slider is inconsistent but shows flashes of promise to the point where the Sox felt compelled to protect Jerez, thus making the 23-year-old a part of the team’s big league depth equation.

SOX YARNS

• Bryce Brentz, whose season ended in mid-June due to thumb surgery, joined Caguas in the Puerto Rican League in mid-December.

• Lefthander Brian Johnson, who was shut down with elbow nerve irritation in August, is expected to be on track to open 2016 in Pawtucket’s rotation.