The Boston Red Sox are suddenly overflowing with young pitching talent.

After acquiring Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday evening, the Red Sox have perhaps 15 pitchers who they could talk themselves into starting games for them this season. Some of those pitchers were protected from this month’s Rule 5 Draft by getting added to the 40-man roster in mid-November.

But unlike their peers whom the Red Sox protected (David Sandlin, Shane Drohan, and Tyler Uberstine), there are plenty of Boston prospects waiting to see if their name gets called when the Rule 5 Draft takes place on Wednesday night in Orlando.

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Will Hayden Mullins be selected in Rule 5 Draft?

While there are a handful of names who could feasibly be selected, MLB Pipeline experts Sam Dykstra and Jesse Borek chose 25-year-old lefty Hayden Mullins as the most likely Red Sox farmhand to get picked up by one of the other 29 teams on Wednesday.

“Mullins gets impressive swing-and-miss on his 91-94 mph four-seamer (that plays up with good extension and life up in the zone) and low-80s, two-plane slider, helping him fan 30.0 percent of his batters faced in 2025,” wrote Dykstra and Borek.

“He had a 13.8 percent walk rate in his 18 starts at Double-A and hasn’t yet reached Triple-A yet as a 25-year-old, and those two factors likely kept him off Boston’s 40-man. But he could be an interesting reliever out of the gate for a Rule 5 club with an eye on being a part of starting depth.”

Mullins is the No. 17 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Red Sox Top 30 list, and in comparison to fellow lefties Payton Tolle, Connelly Early, and even Drohan, he doesn’t have quite the same level of pure stuff. Teams love strikeouts, though, and it wouldn’t be shocking to see a squad with more space on its 40-man roster give him a chance to show he can handle the big leagues.

On the whole, Mullins’ 2025 stats were quite impressive (2.21 ERA, 123 strikeouts in 101 1/3 innings), but the fact that he’s 25 and hasn’t yet seen Triple-A competition could givee Boston’s rivals pause.

If Mullins were selected, he would have to remain on his new team’s active major league roster (or injured list) all season. If not, he would be returned to the Red Sox, as current Triple-A righty Noah Song was after the Philadelphia Phillies waived him in 2023.