There was little question that Anthony Rizzo was major-league ready when the Red Sox traded him to the San Diego Padres in part for Adrian Gonzalez last December.
The Sox prospect-turned-Padre slugged his way through Double-A Portland the previous season. A call to the bigs was imminent.
So in that sense, it was tough for Red Sox minor league director Mike Hazen to watch Rizzo go.
But as the Red Sox-Yankees game was delayed over three hours Thursday night, Hazen got to watch Rizzo, who Boston selected in the sixth round of the 2006 draft, make his MLB debut.
Rizzo struck out in his first at bat, but tripled and walked twice going 1-for-2 in his first game.
“When you develop relationships with these kids, and we all do, you want to see them do nothing but succeed,” Hazen told the Boston Herald. “It’s tough watching them do it with someone else, because you always hope they would do it with the Red Sox. But it doesn’t ever stop. And when you take a kid like Rizzo, who endeared himself in so many ways to so many people here, just the kid he was from day one, everybody here has been talking about it for two days.”
Rizzo and the Padres will visit Fenway Park June 20-22. Hazen will be one of many waiting to congratulate the first baseman.
“A lot of people will be waiting to do that,” Hazen said. “I know the road hasn’t been all that long for him (baseball-wise), but certainly, what he’s experienced in his life, the road’s been pretty long. There’s a tremendous amount of pride for those of us here that scouted him and drafted him and worked with him on the developmental side.”
