Red Sox Top Pitching Prospect Suffers Potentially Serious Elbow Injury

Red Sox Top Pitching Prospect Suffers Potentially Serious Elbow Injury originally appeared on NESN . Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

Boston Red Sox right-handed pitching prospect Juan Valera has been making headlines all spring long with High-A Greenville.

The 19-year-old exited his start in the second inning of the Drive's game against the Bowling Green Hot Rods on Thursday evening with an elbow injury, however.

According to multiple reports, Valera was removed from the contest due to elbow inflammation.

Per Red Sox insiders Chris Cotillo and Jen McCaffrey of MassLive and The Athletic, respectively, the severity of the injury is to be determined.

Valera missed three months of the 2025 Drive season due to elbow soreness, though he returned with a pair of late-summer starts to close the campaign.

"The Red Sox will examine Valera in the coming days to figure out the severity of his injury. At this point, it remains to be determined if he’ll undergo an MRI. As with any arm injury involving a pitcher, there is at least some concern in the organization about a serious injury," Cotillo wrote.

The Dominican Republic native was recently added to Baseball America's list of the top 100 prospects at No. 100.

Valera routinely touches 100 miles per hour on his fastball and has allowed just two runs on four hits with four walks and 17 strikeouts across 9 1/3 innings pitched covering three starts with Greenville this season.

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