Red Sox Sign 17-Year-Old Australian Pitcher

Sound the didgeridoo, the Red Sox have inked 17-year-old Australian southpaw, Daniel McGrath.  

The ace pitcher was mulling over the decision to sign a pro contract or travel to the States to play college ball.   The deal was reportedly made official at his Melbourne home in front of substantial gathering of Australian media.

One (unnamed) major league source stated that as many as 15 big league clubs were interested in the 6-foot-3 lefty whose fastball has been clocked at 91 mph.  Fortunately for Boston, “Red Sox Nation” extends to Australia. The Sox happen to be McGrath’s boyhood team which swayed him to turn down more lucrative offers to sign with Boston.

McGrath is believed to have drawn the most interest from major league clubs of any Australian teenager in at least the past 10 years. (foxsports.com.au)

Can you imagine trying to scout a 13-year-old kid?  Well, that’s exactly what Jon Deeble, the Red Sox scouting director for the Pacific region, did when he saw McGrath pitch four years ago. Fittingly, it was Deeble who represented Boston at McGrath’s signing Tuesday.

McGrath is scheduled to visit Fort Myers during Spring Training for roughly a week or so, but will return to Australia where he’ll graduate from high school in December (wonder if he has a hard time getting a date for the prom).

Some die-hard PawSox fans might be familiar with the name Shane Lindsay.  For what it’s worth, the Australia native previously pitched for the Melbourne Aces (like McGrath recently did) and has spent part of the past two seasons pitching in the International League against the PawSox.  First with Columbus (2010) and more recently with Charlotte (2011).

It’ll be some time before we see the Aussie here at McCoy Stadium, but he creates yet another intriguing minor league story for the Red Sox this season.

-AG