Red Sox select Matt Litwicki with their tenth round pick

The Red Sox went nine rounds without picking a college senior, which was especially surprising to see after taking Marcelo Mayer on Sunday. But they did grab one senior to end the Day Two rounds, selecting Matt Litwicki with their tenth round pick. The 22-year-old (he turns 23 next month) is a right-handed pitcher out of the University of Indiana. He made 10 relief appearances in 2021 totaling 12 innings, allowing six runs with 17 strikeouts and two walks.

Litwicki was ranked at number 212 in Baseball America’s pre-draft rankings, and at number 385 in Perfect Game. The righty is a pure reliever, but there is a lot to like in the profile. He racked up strikeouts in that limited sample this spring, and has a fastball that sits in the mid 90s to go with an impressive slider. The issues is that he just hasn’t really pitched much over the last few years. Over his entire college career, he tossed only 31 ¹⁄₃ innings due to some injury issues. So there’s a lot of risk here, but there’s a real chance at payoff as well, and perhaps quickly.