Call to the pen
Fansided

Boston Red Sox pitcher Jay Groome looking to shine again

ByDamian Dydyn|
FORT MYERS, FL - MARCH 11: Pine tar and rain bag n the step to the Baltimore Orioles dugout before the Spring Training game against the Boston Red Sox at Jet Blue Park on March 11, 2018 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
FORT MYERS, FL - MARCH 11: Pine tar and rain bag n the step to the Baltimore Orioles dugout before the Spring Training game against the Boston Red Sox at Jet Blue Park on March 11, 2018 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***
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FORT MYERS, FL – MARCH 11: Pine tar and rain bag n the step to the Baltimore Orioles dugout before the Spring Training game against the Boston Red Sox at Jet Blue Park on March 11, 2018 in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***

Jay Groome’s 2017 left many wondering if the Boston Red Sox will end up regretting using their first round pick on him in 2016. The hard-throwing lefty looks to right the ship and get back on the fast track to Fenway Park.

When the Boston Red Sox Selected a big, athletic lefty with a 70-grade curveball 12th overall in the 2016 draft, most within the organization celebrated. Jay Groome was touted as, perhaps, the top prospect in that draft but fell due to nebulous claims of character issues and signability concerns, but the talent was undeniable.

After a tumultuous full-season debut his star has dimmed, however, and he finds himself near the bottom of most top 100 lists this winter. His rankings at the four major prospect sites were 78, 83, 85, and 98. But on the heels of a strong spring outing, Red Sox pitcher Jay Groome is looking to shine again.

Draft Stock Falling:

When his name was called by Rob Manfred on June 9, 2016, Jay Groome ran outside clearly overcome with emotion:

The Red Sox were his favorite team growing up, and he was supposedly overjoyed to be picked by them. But his falling to 12th overall after being touted as a possible number one pick immediately kicked off speculation.

The signing bonus demands were well known to be enough to scare off some teams, but it was the character issues that were most intriguing. Keith Law downplayed the concerns in a chat from June 6.

"Jeff: Hi Keith. What are the makeup concerns about Groome? Is it serious stuff or 17-yr. old immaturity stuff? Klaw: To me it’s immaturity and idiocy. No violence, no felonies, not a sociopath. I am more concerned about Delvin Perez’s makeup than Groome’s."

Eric Longenhagen did mostly the same but hinted at something a bit more serious that insiders were aware of.

"Shawn: What are the character concerns on Jason Groome? Feel like whatever they are, they are overstated – kid’s only 17yo Eric A Longenhagen: I’ll say that there are issues and some of them are definitely of the, “Come one, he’s 17” ilk while others are not. Those latter issues are not so bad that I’d just take the kid off the board, but they’d give me pause and force me to sit down with the kid and learn about him. I will also say that some of what was circulating in the industry about him was absolute BS and teams were trying to Marino him down toward their pick, which I think is despicable."

Looking back, it now seems the character issues may not have been about him directly, but about his father.

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