Baseball America released the first installment of its annual top 100 prospect rankings for the upcoming 2022 MLB Draft on Monday. Of the 100 draft-eligible high school and college players that were selected, North Andover native and Northeastern University right-hander Sebastian Keane made the cut at No. 96.
As you might recall, Keane was selected by the Red Sox in the 11th round of the 2019 amateur draft out of North Andover High School. Rather than go pro and sign with Boston, though, the young righty elected to honor his commitment to Northeastern University.
Now a 21-year-old junior, Keane is coming off an eventful 2021 season in which he pitched for both the Huskies and the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League.
In 12 starts for Northeastern during the spring, Keane posted a 4.09 ERA and 1.19 WHIP to go along with 73 strikeouts to 20 walks over 70 1/3 innings of work. In seven appearances — three of which were starts — for Chatham, he produced a 3.86 ERA and 1.57 WHIP with 25 strikeouts to seven walks across 21 total innings pitched.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 187 pounds with room to grow, Keane operates with a four-pitch mix that consists of a fastball that has reached 96 mph, a low-80s slider, a mid-70s curveball, and a low-80s changeup, per his Baseball America scouting report.
“Keane has always been a lean, wiry pitcher who might struggle to add weight in the future,” Baseball America’s Carlos Collazo wrote on Monday. “He had plenty of interest out of high school and has only gotten more since, given his performance and solid package of stuff and average control.”
Considering that he is currently regarded by BA as the 96th-ranked prospect in this year’s draft class, you could make the case that Keane — who turns 22 in November — is a projected third-round pick at the moment.
Of course, plenty will change once the high school and college baseball seasons begin in the spring. Whether Keane will be able to improve his draft stock or sees it take a hit remains to be seen as he prepares for his third season with the Huskies — which begins next month and includes an exhibition against the Red Sox in Fort Myers on February 25.
In a separate piece for Baseball America, Collazo cited that major-league scouting directors feel as though college pitching is the clear wink link heading into the 2022 draft.
“There are few established pitchers with starting track records and first round stuff to match as we enter the 2022 season,” he wrote. “Teams are hoping to look up five months from now and have much different feelings about the college pitching than they do presently.”
With that being said, Collazo adds that prospects such as Keane do have an opportunity “to come out with better stuff and impress in a starting role all season to cement themselves in the first round because of the lack of marquee names in the group.”
Over the course of last summer’s 20-round draft, the Red Sox took a total of seven college pitchers in Wyatt Olds (seventh round), Hunter Dobbins (eighth round), Matt Litwicki (10th round), Christopher Troye (12th round), Jacob Webb (14th round), Luis Guerrero (17th round), and Tyler Uberstine (19th round).
At this point, it is too early to determine what sort of strategy the Red Sox — whose amateur scouting efforts are led by Paul Toboni — will implement going into this summer’s draft.
If college pitching becomes a priority, though, then perhaps they could target someone who is local and someone they already have a history with in Keane. Only time will tell.
(Picture of Sebastian Keane: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
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