The Red Sox have selected Leadership Christian Academy (Puerto Rico) with their fourth-round pick in the 2021 MLB first-year player draft at No. 105 overall.
Rodriguez-Cruz, who turns 18 next month, is listed at 6-foot-4 and 170 pounds. The lanky righty is currently committed to play his college baseball at the University of Oregon.
Per ProspectsLive.com, Rodriguez-Cruz — a native of Trujillo Alto, which is only 11 miles north of Alex Cora’s hometown of Caguas — “makes it look extremely easy on the mound” with “smooth, repeatable mechanics.”
ProspectsLive.com had the young hurler as its 348th-ranked draft prospect, while Perfect Game USA had him as one of the top young right-handers coming out of Puerto Rico in this year’s draft.
“Long and slender build with long arms and legs, extremely projectable physically,” Rodriguez’s cruz Perfect Game scouting report from earlier this year reads. “High leg lift delivery, gets back over his lower half and coils well, arm and body are on time and he creates big arm speed through release with plus extension.
“Fastball worked up to 94 mph with big life at times, not much effort to create plus velocity, works fastball to glove side most of the time, held his velocity very well out of the stretch. Curveball had sharp biting action and some depth, can see him shortening it up for a power slider in the future. Quality change up with late dive and good arm speed generated plenty of bad swings. Very high ceiling young pitching talent.”
In Rodriguez-Cruz, the Red Sox have selected their first pitcher in the 2021 draft after taking three position players (Marcelo Mayer, Jud Fabian, Tyler McDonough) in the first three rounds.
The recommended slot value for the 105th pick is approximately $554,300.
Boston will once again be on the clock for pick No. 136, so stay tuned for that.
(Picture of Red Sox logo: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
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