Leading off was the fourth overall pick in the draft, high school shortstop Marcello Mayer. Mayer was as good as advertised at the end of last year with the Florida Complex League and to start this season with the Salem Red Sox. He suffered an injury and his average dropped to .281, but if your average DROPS to .281 that means you're doing well. He's definitely progressing well for a 19 year old to be close to All-Star status in the Carolina League.
Boston's second round pick turned out to be a waste. The Sox drafted Jud Fabian as a junior out of Florida University where he slammed 20 home runs and drove in 46 runs. Instead of leaving school for the Sox, he stayed to play his senior year. For what its worth, he hit only .239 but had 24 home runs and 55 rbis his senior year. If "launch angle" is the wave of the future, his future teams will definitely take the tradeoff of hitting .230 if he can hit 30 plus home runs. The Sox better hope none of the players drafted after Fabian and before their third round pick turn into superstars because the Sox could have drafted them instead.
Boston's selected North Carolina State Wolfpack second baseman Tyler McDonough in the third round after he hit .339 and 15 home runs in his senior year. Tyler hit .296 in Salem to end last season and is currently hitting .245 with 7 home runs and 34 rbis along with 12 stolen bases for the Greenville Drive. Hitting just .245 isn't that good but this is his first full year of minor league ball after the short season last year. The fact he's made it past Low A at all is an encouraging sign.
The Sox made a crapshoot with their fourth round pick as they drafted 17 year old right handed pitcher Elmer Cruz-Rodriguez out of high school in Puerto Rico. After he graduates, he'll be joining the Florida Complex Red Sox soon. It should be noted a few picks after drafting Rodriguez, the Los Angeles Angels drafted right handed pitcher Luke Murphy out of Vanderbilt University. Murphy is 6-1 with a 2.92 ERA out of the bullpen for LA's double A team. That could have been the Sox....just saying.
If the Sox whiffed on Fabian in the second round, they got another crack at the Florida Gators when they drafted their catcher Nathan Hickey in the fifth round. Hickey had a reputation of a below average catcher but could hit. He hit .319 with 9 home runs and 50 rbis for the Gators in 2021. This season he's hitting .270 with 7 home runs and 39 rbis so far with the Salem Red Sox. If Connor Wong isn't going to be the catcher of the future if and when Christian Vazquez moves on, Hickey could be a contender in a few years.
The Sox went back to high school for their sixth round pick, scooping up 18 year old shortstop Daniel McElveny from Bonita Vista High School in California. Basically he was insurance just in case Marcelo Mayer didn't develop or switched positions. He played just 9 games for the Florida Complex League last year and is going to be in the lineup this season when the league gets going. It'll be a few years before we can judge how he turns out, good luck to him.
The Sox turned in a head scratcher with their seventh round pick, taking right handed pitcher Wyatt Olds from Oklahoma University. He quite frankly had a bad senior year going 4-6 with a 5.17 ERA. Sox brass feel they can fix him and so far this season.....he's 1-5 with a 6.28 ERA. Like I said last year when he was drafted, either they picked the wrong guy or they must have saw something everyone else in the country didn't. Time will tell if he can be fixed.
If taking a bum with their seventh round pick wasn't bad enough, they topped it by taking an injured right handed pitcher in the eighth round. Hunter Dobbins had Tommy John surgery and missed his senior year at Texas Tech before being drafted by the Red Sox. He's only pitched in 3 games so far for the Salem Red Sox this season so it would be unfair to judge him coming off TJ when he hasn't basically pitched since 2019 since 2020 was cut short by Covid. Let's give him another year before dropping the anvil on him.
The Sox selected Auburn University third baseman Tyler Miller with their ninth round pick after he hit 16 home runs in 51 games. He had 14 hits in 9 games to end 2021 with Salem although he's only hitting .184 in 54 games this year. He has hit 8 home runs so its pretty much all or nothing for him as of now. He better learn how to get on base more or he won't make it too far past Greenville.
Rounding out the top 10 was 10th round pick Matt Litwicki, the right handed closer of Indiana University. He's yet to pitch for the organization as he didn't pitch following the draft and is on the inactive list for Salem. Who knows when he'll pitch again, if he doesn't, just a bad 10th round pick. Every team has them.
The Sox selected Notre Dame first baseman Niko Kavadas with their 11th round pick after he slammed 21 home runs in 46 games for the Fighting Irish. He hit 2 home runs in 15 games to finish last year in Salem and is thriving so far this year. He's hitting .287 with 13 home runs with 47 runs batted in for Salem and he's a hot streak away from being promoted to Greenville.
In the 12th round, the Sox took UC-Santa Barbara right handed pitcher Christopher Troye. He struck out 29 batters in 18 innings but also walked 25 his senior year. Things didn't get any better this year as he's allowed 8 runs and 8 walks in 10 innings pitched. Not everyone is going to figure it out their first year so we'll see how he looks a year or even a month from now
In the 13th round the Sox selected Florida prep school shortstop Zack Ehrhard who was committed to playing at Oklahoma State. True to his word Erhard chose to go to Oklahoma State and hit .332 as a Freshman with 73 hits in 55 games. If he keeps up this pace, he'll be one of the top players in the country three years from now. Just like with Fabian, the Sox simply drafted him too early.
The Sox selected the 6'5 right handed pitcher Jacob Webb out of Miami Ohio University with their 14th round pick after he struck out 59 batters in 39 innings. He allowed just 1 run in 10 innings at the end of 2021 in Salem and struck out 39 batters in 24 innings to earn a promotion to Greenville. He's struck out 5 batters in 3 innings so far with Greenville so Webb has all the makings of a future closer if he can keep the walks down.
The Sox next whiff was when they selected North Carolina high school prep shortstop Peyton Green in the 15th round. Green ended up committing to North Carolina State where he hit .256 with 7 home runs his Freshman year with the Wolfpack. Unlike Erhard, Green didn't have that outstanding of a season. Maybe the Sox caught a break by him choosing to go to college rather than potentially stink up Salem or the Florida Complex team.
The 16th round draft choice was California high school second baseman BJ Vela. He was originally committed to St. Mary's but instead chose to turn pro. He hit just .219 to end 2021 in the Florida Complex although he has 4 hits in 5 games to start this year in Complex. It'll be 2 or 3 years before we can get a true judgment on him.
He looks happy to sign....for now
The Sox went to Junior College to get their 17th round pick, right handed pitcher Luis Guerrero out of Chipola. Kyle Hart was a 17th round pick and he made it to the majors so there's hope for Guerrero yet. He pitched just 2 innings for the Complex before being promoted to Salem. He's allowed 4 runs in 7 1/3 innings so far but going from JuCo to pro ball is going to take time to adjust. Check back in another year.
The Sox 18th round pick was Texas Christian University pitcher turned outfielder Phillip Sikes. At 23 years old he's already an elder statesman and he hit .392 for the Complex to end last season. This year he's hitting only .233 but has 11 steals, he could be a possible designated runner like Dave Roberts for Salem or Greenville if he ever gets there.
In the 19th round, the Sox took a gamble on another bum, Northwestern University right handed pitcher Tyler Uberstine. Uberstine had a bad senior year going 3-3 with a 5.90 ERA but allowed just 1 run in 7 innings to end 2021 in the Complex. This year he's been mediocre in Salem, going 4-3 with an ERA of 4.36 ERA. Still, that's still an improvement over last year and against better competition this season. He'll have to pick up the pace to make it to Greenville but he's done better than expected.
The Sox 20th and final pick was another waste only of a different kind. They selected Pennsylvania shortstop Josh Hood who was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in 2019 and who's 2020 season was cut short. Rather than sign with the Sox, he chose to transfer to North Carolina State as a redshirt junior. He hit .268 with 13 home runs for the Wolfpack this year and has another year to go before he graduates. 20th round picks rarely turn into superstars so just chalk this up as a "meh, who cares" pick. He and Peyton Green can both say they were drafted by the Sox.
The Sox signed two players that went undrafted and one of them was Clemson University outfielder Kier Meredith who hit .283 with the Tigers his senior year. He's hitting only .250 with Salem this year but does have 9 steals. Still, the fact that all 30 ML teams including the Red Sox passed on him 20 times and he still got to Salem is a victory in itself. Keep fighting Kier!
The other rookie free agent the Sox signed was a local guy so to speak, right handed pitcher Jhonny Felix who went to high school in Brighton, MA. He's already 23 and had to play JuCo at Western Oklahoma State just to get noticed. The Sox signed him at 23 years old and he allowed 10 runs in 3 innings to finish 2021 in the Complex. This year was even worse as he allowed 23 runs in just 16 innings for Salem before being sent back to the Complex when their season started. Can't really expect much out of someone who wasn't even drafted.
Well there you go, there's the 22 players drafted or signed by the Sox. Only four of them didn't sign so the rest of them have a month to show what they can do before the next group is drafted and signed. Very, very rarely does someone immediately go from drafted to the big leagues like Craig Hansen in 2005 and even then, rushing someone will ruin them (like Craig). It would be unfair to expect any of these guys to be in Worcester to end this season but if Mayer, Hickey, Kavadas and Webb continue to hit or pitch well, they may see Portland by September. Andrew Benintendi was drafted in 2015 and was in the majors by August of 2016 so there's the bar set for most of them. If anyone wants to head down to Florida, Greenville or Salem to see these guys, do it. Most of them may never see Worcester let alone Boston due to trades, injuries or incompetence. Still, the goal is to find new talent and hopefully some of these guys can make it to Boston eventually.
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