By Laura Soukkavong –
PORTLAND, Maine — At some point, an individual award stops looking like an isolated achievement and starts saying something larger about an organization. The Portland Sea Dogs reached that point a while ago, but Henry Godbout and Hayden Mullins provided another reminder this week.
Godbout was selected as the Eastern League Player of the Week for August 31 through September 6, while Mullins was named the league’s Pitcher of the Week. They became the 12th and 13th Sea Dogs weekly honorees this season, extending a remarkable collection of individual recognition for Portland.
For Godbout, the award came after five games in which opposing pitchers found few ways to slow him down. The 22-year-old shortstop hit .455, going 10-for-22 with five runs, four home runs and six runs batted in.
The power was accompanied by consistency. Godbout recorded at least one hit in four of the five games during the week and entered the award announcement having hit safely in 12 of his previous 13 games.
He became especially difficult to contain as the week progressed. Godbout collected three hits in each of his final three games, turning what was already a productive stretch into the best offensive week in the Eastern League.
His September 3 performance against the Chesapeake Baysox captured everything that made the week exceptional. Godbout went 3-for-4 with a double and two home runs, with the second homer providing the game-winning blow in the ninth inning of Portland’s 5-4 victory.
That wasn’t simply a hitter accumulating numbers in games whose outcomes had already been decided. Godbout’s biggest swing of the week came when his team needed it most, transforming an outstanding individual performance into a Portland victory.
By the end of the week, Godbout led the Eastern League with four home runs, a 1.045 slugging percentage and a 1.500 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Those numbers explain why the league’s Player of the Week decision landed in Portland.
They also add another intriguing chapter to Godbout’s short Double-A tenure. Since joining the Sea Dogs from High-A Greenville on August 11, Godbout is hitting .286 through 19 games with eight home runs and 18 runs batted in.
Eight home runs in 19 games immediately stand out. For a player adjusting to another level of professional baseball, Godbout hasn’t merely survived his first weeks with Portland; he has already demonstrated significant power production.
MLB.com ranks Godbout as the No. 6 prospect in the Red Sox organization. Boston selected him with the 75th overall pick in the 2025 First-Year Player Draft, and his rapid arrival in Portland has now been followed by his first Eastern League Player of the Week honor.
While Godbout earned his award across five games, Hayden Mullins needed only one start to make his case. The 25-year-old left-hander took the mound against Chesapeake on September 2 and delivered six scoreless innings.
Mullins allowed only one hit and struck out 10. Portland ultimately lost the game 5-4 in 10 innings, meaning his individual dominance didn’t produce a victory, but that did little to diminish what he accomplished during his six innings.
There is something particularly unforgiving about a pitching performance like that ending without a team win. Mullins gave Portland six scoreless innings, permitted one hit and recorded 10 strikeouts, doing virtually everything a starting pitcher could reasonably be asked to do.
The result also demonstrates why evaluating a pitcher solely through wins and losses can obscure the quality of individual performances. Mullins couldn’t control what happened after his outing ended, but he controlled almost everything while the baseball remained in his hand.
Through 21 appearances, including 19 starts, Mullins is 3-5 with a 4.15 earned run average for Portland. His strikeout total provides another measure of what he has been able to accomplish.
Mullins has recorded 127 strikeouts in 86.2 innings, ranking fifth in the Eastern League. That ability to miss bats was displayed emphatically against Chesapeake when 10 outs came by strikeout.
MLB.com ranks Mullins as the No. 27 prospect in the Red Sox organization. Boston selected the left-hander in the 12th round of the 2022 First-Year Player Draft, and his latest start was enough to make him the Eastern League’s top pitcher for the week.
Taken individually, Godbout and Mullins had very different paths to their awards. One overwhelmed pitchers across five games with hits and home runs, while the other overwhelmed hitters during six innings in a single start.
Taken together, their awards continue a pattern that has followed Portland throughout the season. Sea Dogs players have now received 13 Eastern League weekly honors, with five Player of the Week selections and eight Pitcher of the Week selections.
Godbout became the fourth different Portland player to receive the league’s offensive weekly honor this season. Johanfran Garcia has won it twice, for June 8-14 and August 24-30, while Ronald Rosario earned the award for July 13-19 and Brooks Brannon received it for May 4-10.
The pitching side has been even more widespread. Mullins became the sixth different Sea Dogs pitcher to receive Eastern League Pitcher of the Week recognition this season.
Max Carlson earned the honor for July 20-26, while Blake Wehunt received it twice, for June 22-28 and June 30-July 5. Anthony Eyanson was recognized for May 18-24, Patrick Halligan for May 11-17 and John Holobetz for April 13-19.
Portland’s individual recognition hasn’t been limited to weekly awards. Franklin Arias was named the Eastern League Player of the Month for April, adding another honor to a season in which Sea Dogs players have repeatedly found themselves recognized by the league.
That breadth may be the most significant part of Portland’s collection of awards. This hasn’t been one dominant prospect repeatedly carrying the organization into the weekly announcements; the recognition has been spread across hitters and pitchers throughout the roster.
For a Double-A club, that matters. The purpose of the level extends beyond winning games, with player development and advancement through the organization remaining central to what happens during a season.
Godbout’s recent performance fits directly into that picture. He arrived from High-A Greenville less than a month ago and has already produced eight home runs in 19 games while earning a league-wide weekly honor.
Mullins’ development has taken a different route, but 127 strikeouts in 86.2 innings demonstrate the swing-and-miss ability he has brought to Portland’s rotation. His one-hit, 10-strikeout performance against Chesapeake offered perhaps the clearest example of it.
Now the Sea Dogs return to Portland for the final homestand of the season, beginning Tuesday against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. They arrive with two more league awards and another pair of performances worth remembering from the final stretch of the schedule.
The homestand includes Bark in the Park and Hockey Night on September 9, followed by Grateful Dead Night and the Sea Dogs Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on September 10. Portland’s Fan Appreciation Game is scheduled for September 12.
Those events will provide the backdrop to the final home games, but the baseball itself arrives with another reminder of the talent that has passed through Portland this season. Thirteen weekly honors and a Player of the Month award represent recognition spread across a considerable portion of the roster.
This time, the honors belong to Henry Godbout and Hayden Mullins. One earned his with a week of relentless offense, the other with six nearly untouchable innings, and together they added two more names to a list that has become unusually long in Portland.