With Opening Day quickly approaching, there aren't many more opportunities for prospects to come up from minor league camp to showcase themselves in front of the big league staff.
That was not the case on Friday, as minor league pitcher Blake Wehunt earned a start on the road when the team took on the Tampa Bay Rays. With the combination of a cross-state bus ride and Alex Cora lining up starters for opening week, Wehunt got to face a lineup full of MLB regulars.
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The 25-year-old threw four innings and only gave up one run. He struck out three batters, all of which came on his revamped slider. He topped out at 97.3 miles per hour during the outing, which is a drastic jump from last season.
"Facing the first batter was having me feeling very nervous," Wehunt told Baseball Now. "I just told myself after that to just fill up the zone and good things would happen."
After noticing his velocity was a tick up from last season, Wehunt noted he "still had more in the tank" when it comes to higher velocity going forward.
The positive outing is very encouraging for the right-hander after dealing with a nagging lat injury in 2025 that stalled his season with Double-A Portland.
"It was almost like I could not put my trust into my pitches that I had before," Wehunt said of the injury. "I pretty much rely on extension for almost all my pitches. When I got into those max extension places, parts of my body would light up. It made me very timid with my pitches. It took me a long time to learn how to trust that again and just let it eat. It was mentally tough at first for sure. The worst part of it was the ability to trust myself again and throw my stuff with full conviction. It was a huge battle last year."
Wehunt has been a constant staple on Top-30 prospect lists around baseball over the past couple of seasons for Boston and looks to build off this momentum heading into the 2026 season.