January 16, 2026 at 2:30 PM
Meet Carter Rasmussen, the Red Sox new ‘late bloomer’ pitching prospect
While fans might not be too familiar with the Texas native, Rasmussen shared a few connections with the Red Sox and to the New England area prior to joining the organization.
The right-hander grew up outside of the Dallas area where he broke former Red Sox pitcher Dustin May's strikeout record in high school. While training during his off seasons in Texas, he shared a pitching coach with former Red Sox pitcher Hunter Dobbins. Once college hit, he spent his first two seasons getting acquainted with New England when he moved to Brown to play baseball.
After his two seasons at Brown, Rasmussen transferred to Wofford where he posted career highs in just about every category across the board. His performance was enough to get Boston’s attention to be drafted, although he might not have even been on the radar until his season had almost finished.
“I feel like I was a very late bloomer for the draft class,” Rasmussen said. “I didn’t really get a lot of eyes on me until halfway through the college season. The first chunk of summer I was on calls with a bunch of area scouts and attending a ton of pre-draft workouts. I had a whole bunch of little lines in the water, with Boston being one of them. I had a couple of connections with Boston with me being up in Rhode Island at Brown. I had also pitched a couple of times at the Greenville Drive field for a college conference tournament, so I figured that could have gotten some eyes on me from Boston’s side.”
The 21-year-old joined a Red Sox draft class alongside 14 other pitchers. Standing at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, Rasmussen fits right in with the size aspect the organization seems to be targeting. Nicknamed "Big Country" and hitting 97 mph on the radar gun during his college tenure, he checks a lot of the boxes the Red Sox are looking for these days.
“We were super excited to get Carter where we did in the draft,” Red Sox Senior Director of Player Development Brian Abraham said. "The size, physicality, and the stuff with room for development is exactly what we look for. He has already added good weight and strength coming into this year and has been incredibly consistent with his work and communication. His fastball already plays well, but we expect that to continue to improve with added velocity. He has continued to work on his secondaries, especially his changeup, where he has added depth specifically. We are looking forward to seeing him go out and compete this year.”
While at Wofford, Rasmussen topped with that 97 mph fastball, a pitch that he threw over 80 percent of the time. Even with the success with the fastball, even Rasmussen knows he is one or two pitches away from finding more success at the professional level.
“I would consider myself a fastball power type of pitcher,” Rasmussen added. “I have been gaining a lot of velocity over the past year, and I want to continue to build that up. I was fastball heavy last year, but I am looking to tune that back a little bit to not be so reliant on fastballs up in the zone trying to get by guys. I have been working on some off speeds with my changeup and breaking ball. I am the type of guy that looks to challenge hitters and not be too cute around the edges. I want my best stuff versus your best stuff.”
Photo Credit: Carter Rasmussen by woffordterriers.com
