If you go back and look at the Boston Red Sox prospect rankings from 2010, you will be hard pressed to find anyone but Ryan Westmoreland listed at number one.
He was ranked ahead of Josh Reddick, Casey Kelly, Felix Doubront, Anthony Rizzo, Will Middlebrooks, and Jose Iglesias, just to name a few.
Westmoreland was coming off his first 60 games of pro ball where he hit .296 and reached base at a .401 clip while hitting seven home runs and stealing 19 bags without being caught. He also played a fantastic outfield, and was an undeniably true five tool player. He was a top 25 prospect in all of baseball heading into the 2010 season.
Before the season began, however, he was experiencing some numbness in his body and went in for examinations. Doctors discovered Westmoreland had a cavernous malformation on his brain stem that had to be removed.
Despite the life threatening surgery, and Westmoreland basically having to relearn the game he loved and was great at. Having overcome so many odds, he appeared to be back on track to play Minor League Baseball again in 2012 after a successful Dominican Winter League.
During Spring Training in 2012, that same condition had returned forcing a 22-year old Westmoreland to announce his retirement in March of 2013.
On Wednesday night, the Lowell Spinners, the only minor league club Westmoreland ever got a chance to play for, retired the number 25 jersey he wore in 2009, the first number the club has ever retired.
To this day he still deals with double vision, partial facial paralysis, and numbness throughout his body, but he is taking online courses at Northeastern University where he is majoring in business. His ultimate goal is to be back in baseball, but his aspirations are now limited to a front office role rather than a spot on the field.
I, for one, will not count out Westmoreland having a successful career on the business side of baseball. He has already successfully come through two life threatening brain surgeries, making it in a front office is nothing compared to that.