In baseball, one truth stands eternal: there's never enough pitching. Even if you could magically assemble a rotation of prime Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Pedro Martinez, Cy Young, and Randy Johnson, you'd still need more arms. The Boston Red Sox are learning this lesson the hard way in 2025.

Through the first month of the season, the Sox have already turned to eight different starting pitchers—and only one was a scheduled opener. That doesn't even count Johan Oviedo, who went down before getting his shot at the rotation. Enter Jake Bennett, a prospect few expected to see Fenway Park before summer.

Bennett made his debut on May 1st, thrust into the spotlight by a cascade of injuries both major and minor. In his first two starts, he's logged 10.1 innings with a 4.35 ERA, striking out batters at a 9.5% rate while walking them at the same clip. Those numbers won't make anyone forget Pedro's prime, but they're not terrible either. The big lefty has held his own.

Coming out of Spring Training, there was plenty to like about Bennett. He's a towering southpaw who uses his frame to generate downhill plane on his fastball, and he's been pumping gas. His plus changeup gives him a legitimate weapon against right-handed hitters—a skill that's become increasingly valuable in today's game.

But after watching his first two big-league outings, the reaction is more "intrigued" than "wowed." The biggest red flag? Bennett simply isn't missing bats. He's fanned just four batters across both starts combined. He worked into two-strike counts against 19 hitters but converted only about 21% of those into strikeouts. For context, the league average conversion rate from two-strike counts to punchouts hovers around that same mark—so Bennett is essentially average here, not elite.

To put it kindly, the issue appears to be that his stuff isn't quite sharp enough yet. Against right-handed batters, his two-strike command actually looks solid—he's burying his changeup down and away effectively. The foundation is there. The question now is whether Bennett can develop the put-away pitch that separates a serviceable starter from a reliable one.

For Red Sox fans, the takeaway is patience. Bennett wasn't supposed to be here yet. He's getting valuable experience, and the raw materials—size, velocity, and a plus changeup—are worth developing. In a season where the rotation has been held together by duct tape and determination, that might be the best the Sox can ask for right now.