The Red Sox might have a good one in Noah Song.
The fourth-round draft pick has hit the ground running in his professional career, and the Boston prospect currently is dazzling for Team USA at the WBSC Premier12 international baseball tournament.
Song on Friday morning looked downright dominant, working a perfect inning in the Americans’ win over Chinese Taipei. The US will now wait and see whether it will play Mexico in the bronze medal game with a chance to qualify for the 2020 Olympics at stake, as well.
As for Song, he was unhittable against Chinese Taipei, needing just 12 pitches to get through the seventh inning. The Naval Academy product struck out the first two batters he faced and got the third to ground out to first base in his flawless frame.
(You can watch the full inning here.)
Song was also lighting up the radar gun, consistently sitting around 97 mph, hitting 99 at one point during the inning. He now has appeared in four of Team USA’s seven games, tossing four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and issuing a walk. He also has six strikeouts in those four appearances.
SoxProspects.com currently ranks Song as the organization’s No. 8 prospect, but it will be interesting to see whether that changes at all as the 2020 season approaches. The 2019 draft pick, who led the NCAA in strikeouts last season while anchoring the Midshipmen’s rotation, wasted little time making an impact, appearing in seven games for the Single-A Lowell Spinners this past summer, striking out 19 in 17 innings while allowing just two runs on 10 hits and five walks.
Here’s a look at some of his work from Lowell:
Song likely would have gone much higher than the fourth round had it not been for his Naval service commitment. Coincidentally, Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week signed a memo that would allow athletes to play their respective pro sport after graduation, but Song — who is expected to go to flight school next week — apparently isn’t covered in that because the change came after he went pro.
Noah Song is not covered by the new Department of Defense memo that allows service academy athletes to delay their active-duty service.
The AP reports Song is seeking a waiver but there has been no decision yet.
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) November 15, 2019
Everyone involved now must wait and see what comes of the reported ruling. Even if Song must serve his commitment, he’d only have to serve two years before serving the final three years of his commitment in the reserves.
