PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Add one more to the ranks of both Red Sox pitching prospects and rotation options.

A year ago, in his first big league camp, Felix Doubront was sent to the minors in the first wave of spring training cuts. That came as no surprise: he had been added to the 40-man roster the previous winter at the young age of 21, and had spent just four games at the High-A level.

This year, the left-hander outlasted the first group of players who were sent back to the minor league complex on Sunday. Doubront has been among the more impressive young pitchers in big-league camp this spring, having fired three shutout innings against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday to extend his scoreless innings streak to seven in Grapefruit League games.

“Last year, he was the first-cut-of-the-camp guy,” said Red Sox advance scout Mike Cather, Doubront’s pitching coach at Double-A Portland last year. “This year, he belongs in the locker room.”

Doubront has flown more or less under the radar of Sox pitching prospects. Baseball America gave him a relatively modest ranking as the No. 18 prospect in the system. But he has shown the potential for a promising future this spring, something that continued with his outing against the Rays.

The 22-year-old allowed one hit and one walk to the Rays while striking out one. The left-hander worked quickly and kept the ball on the ground, showing an ability to leverage his fastball down in the strike zone while adding in an impressive changeup that proved tough on right-handers. It continued a solid body of work that has caught the attention of members of the Sox staff this spring.

The sturdy left-hander has struck out four, walked two and allowed three hits in his seven innings this spring. Also noteworthy: Doubront has recorded nearly twice as many outs by groundball (11) as he has by fly out (6).

“He’s an outstanding starting pitching prospect,” Sox pitching coach John Farrell had said prior to the outing. “He’s done a great job of not only working ahead in the count, but getting outs early and getting outs with his fastball. We always feel that if you can get outs with your fastball on the ground, it’s a great sign for young pitchers attacking major league hitters.”

This is the second straight spring in which the young left-hander, signed out of Venezuela for approximately $150,000 in 2004, has made an impression in big league camp. Last year, Doubront’s fastball velocity picked up, typically running from 90-93 mph and ticking up as high as 94 in camp, showing more power than he had before in his career.

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“He’s always had a great changeup. Since he was 18, 19 years old, people have said he had a major league changeup,” said Mike Cather, Doubont’s pitching coach at Double-A Portland last year who is now serving as an advance scout for the Red Sox. “To me, the curveball is still inconsistent, but he’s starting to show flashes that he gets it. That’s a really huge sign. He can show an average curveball. Now, it’s about finding it when he wants to go to it.”

In 2009, Doubront finished second among qualifying pitchers in the Double-A Eastern League with a 3.35 ERA, and ranked fourth among league starters with 7.5 strikeouts per nine innings. Opponents hit just .255 against him, as Doubront proved equally adept against lefties (.255) and righties (.256).

One game stood out as a turning point in his year. For much of the first half, Cather had tried to encourage Doubront to attack the strike zone, since high pitch count were responsible for his inability to get deep into contests.

On July 22, Doubront responded, throwing a complete-game, seven-inning shutout against the Twins’ Double-A team while striking out a career-high 10. Though that New Britain team was known as a good fastball-hitting club, Doubront succeeded by throwing – by Cather’s estimation – 90 percent fastballs.

“I had a conversation with him after that. He said, ‘Every time I thought about this guy being a good hitter, I thought aggressive, aggressive, aggressive,’” Cather recounted. “Man, it was great. It was self-taught on the hill to push him through it. That was the highlight of his year for me, because you could see that he just got it.”

As a left-handed starter, if Doubront can offer three pitches that are at least solid average, then he will position himself well for a future in a big league rotation. While he is all but locked into the rotation of Triple-A Pawtucket for the start of the year, his strong performance this spring suggests that an opportunity in the majors is coming ever closer.

“He’s been impressive,” said Farrell. “You see a guy respond favorably to this setting, whether it’s increased adrenaline, increased emotion, that is being channeled in a positive way. He’s not backed away from any challenges.”