BOSTON — The Red Sox announced Monday that they have signed ninth-round pick Kevin Steen, a right-handed pitcher out of Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee.
The Red Sox now have signed each of their first 21 selections from the first 20 rounds of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. Overall, Boston has signed 30 of the 41 players the club selected in last month’s draft.
Steen, who also played basketball in high school, is listed at 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds. He committed to play baseball at the University of Tennessee before signing with the Red Sox, though he only made a handful of starts this past season.
“You’re buying the upside there,” Red Sox director of amateur scouting Amiel Sawdaye said of Steen after the Sox drafted him last month. “It’s a loose, live arm. It’s a projectable body. He has the ability to spin a breaking ball. The (velocity) isn’t there right now, and we don’t expect it to be, because it’s like his fourth game out of spring training, really. Hopefully, if we get this kid out and really get him on the mound and continue his mound progression, hopefully, we’ll be seeing a different guy.”
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@DCCATVOICE
