3 things to know about former Red Sox draft pick Noah Song as he joins the Phillies for Spring Training
Song missed three years of baseball but is expected to report to the Phillies on Thursday.
Noah Song, a 2019 Red Sox draft pick, has spent the past three years serving on active duty for the Navy and hasn’t played in a professional baseball game during that time.
The Department of Defense denied his request for a waiver in 2019 that would have allowed him to play with Boston, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
Song was considered to have first-round talent, but fell to the Red Sox in the fourth round because of his military commitment, according to Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe.
This week, Noah Song’s military status was transferred from active duty to selected reserves, allowing him to play professional baseball again.
Song plans to report to Spring Training on Thursday with the Philadelphia Phillies, who selected him during December’s Rule 5 draft.
Here are three things to know about Song’s situation and how it relates to the Red Sox.
What kind of player is Noah Song?
Song is a 6-foot-4-inch, 200-pound starting pitcher.
He started seven games for the Lowell Spinners in 2019, allowing just two earned runs in 17 innings for an ERA of 1.06.
At the time, Song’s fastball topped out at 99 miles per hour. He also throws a slider, change-up, and curveball. A report from NESN said that his slider was considered above average, his curveball needed work, and his the improvement of his changeup helped spark a leap in his prospect rankings in 2019.
“Really impressive first full season,” Red Sox vice president of player development Ben Crockett told NESN in the piece. “Showed a quality three-pitch mix. Good feel for the slider, good feel for the changeup and, obviously, big velocity on the fastball, particularly when he was throwing out of the bullpen for Team USA.”
Abraham said Song has the potential to be a “future ace,” and that letting him join the Phillies could end up being embarrassing for Boston.
Why was Philadelphia allowed to get him?
The Rule 5 draft takes place every December and allows teams to fill out their rosters with players who didn’t make a 40-man roster.
The Red Sox could have protected Song by adding him to the 40 man roster, but president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom didn’t feel it was the right move to make.
“You don’t ever want to lose anybody,” Bloom said. “Given his situation, we felt that when he returns from his commitment, being on the 40-man roster would not be an ideal situation to have. That’s a risk we were willing to take.”
How can the Red Sox get him back?
Rule-5 players have to remain on the 26-man roster for the whole season in order to remain with the club that selected them. The new team must pay $100,000 to the old team
If the player fails to make the 26-man roster, the player can be traded or waived.
If the player clears waivers, he can be offered back to his old team, which in Song’s case would be the Red Sox. The Phillies would have to pay $50,000 in that case.
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