Pick 14 – Boston Red Sox
Selection: SP John Thompson
The Boston Red Sox enter this offseason in a state of transition—if not full reconstruction. With the front office openly shopping nearly the entire roster outside of Barry Bonds, Mike Cameron, and Édgar Rentería, this is a club still searching for an identity, a direction, and frankly, a foundation. When a team has this many needs, the draft board is wide open.
And yet, the answer here feels surprisingly straightforward.
Even though there are several appealing bats available at 14, the Red Sox can’t ignore the glaring reality of what sunk them in 1996: pitching. More specifically, starting pitching. Boston finished dead last in team ERA, and no rebuild—no matter how ambitious—can get off the ground with a rotation that unstable.
Enter John Thompson, one of the final high-quality arms left on the board.
Thompson isn’t an ace, and Boston shouldn’t draft him expecting one. What he is, however, is exactly the kind of pitcher teams picking in the mid-first round should covet:
- Nearly filled out
- Legitimate three-star projection
- 18 stamina
- A hard-to-square sinker that will induce grounders for a decade
- An overall profile of a durable, innings-eating starter
On a playoff team, Thompson is a No. 2 or No. 3. On this Boston roster, he may very well be the Opening Day starter by 1998—and that’s not a bad thing. You build a staff by stacking reliable arms, and Thompson is as “reliable” as they come in this class.
This pick signals a steadying of the ship. A commitment to getting the rotation right. A choice that pairs nicely with last year’s splash in Rentería and begins to create the spine of a competitive future.
John Thompson won’t generate headlines, but he will generate outs, innings, and direction—three things the Red Sox desperately need right now.