Connelly Early burst into the Red Sox rotation with a 2.33 ERA over his first 19 1/3 innings in the majors last September, enhancing his status as a key part of Boston’s pitching future. Cementing that future potential in the form of a contract extension, however, doesn’t yet appear to be in the team’s plans, as MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith and Chris Cotillo write that the Sox haven’t yet engaged with Early’s reps at Excel Sports Management about a long-term deal.
Part of the reason could be related to Early’s choice of agency, as Excel clients don’t usually pursue long-term extensions in general, and never so early in their big league careers. Using MLBTR’s Contract Tracker for reference, most of Excel’s extensions over the last two decades have been shorter-term deals covering two or three or a player’s arbitration years, without extending his team’s control. Former Excel client Freddie Freeman signed an eight-year, $135MM extension with the Braves back in February 2014, and Cal Raleigh signed his six-year, $105MM extension with the Mariners just under a year ago, but Freeman and Raleigh each had more than three years of MLB service at the times of those deals.
Early, by contrast, has only 20 official days on his service clock. Early and fellow southpaw Payton Tolle (31 days) each logged little enough time in their 2025 debut seasons that, as Smith and Cotillo note, the Red Sox can still gain an extra year of team control over the duo if they’re held in the minors for a certain amount of time in 2026 — Early 35 days, and Tolle 45 days.
Such considerations might factor into whether or not Early or Tolle make Boston’s Opening Day roster, but an extension would obviously overwrite things. Since Craig Breslow become the team’s chief baseball officer, the Red Sox have locked up Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Ceddanne Rafaela to long-term extensions when all three of those players had just a handful of MLB games under their belt.
Early didn’t quite have the same star-prospect status of that group, but the fifth-round pick from Boston’s 2023 draft class advanced to Double-A before the 2024 season was over. He really got himself on the radar with a 2.60 ERA, 31.9% strikeout rate, and 9.7% walk rate across 100 1/3 minor league innings (71 2/3 in Double-A, 28 2/3 in Triple-A) in 2025, leading to his late-season call-up.
If it wasn’t for the precedent of these other early-career extensions for Anthony and company, there probably wouldn’t be any discussion of a contract for Early given that he is still so new on the big league scene. The Red Sox may also want a bit more time to evaluate what they really have in Early, and if his promising development on the farm can truly translate to a good career in the majors.
Ranger Suarez and Sonny Gray were new acquisitions this winter, and they’ll join Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello as the locks within the Sox pitching staff. Johan Oviedo is another new face acquired in a trade with the Pirates this winter, so he might have the edge on the fifth starter’s job even though Early and others are still competing. The likeliest scenario is that Early, Tolle, and (on rehab assignments) Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford start the season at Triple-A, acting as rotation depth.
