Will Middlebrooks Thought Ex-Red Sox Prospect Was Destined For Hall Of Fame Career
Sox Talk with Will Middlebrooks is a recurring content series on NESN.com. Middlebrooks, a former Red Sox player and current NESN analyst, gives his insight and opinion on pertinent Red Sox storylines throughout the season. You can read the latest stories from the series here.
There's no crystal ball for front office executives to look into to see the futures of talented baseball prospects.
The Red Sox farm system is chalk full of potential MLB stars like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel at the moment. But there are no guarantees they turn into perennial All-Stars and sustain long big-league careers.
Former Red Sox third baseman and 2013 World Series champion Will Middlebrooks understands that better than most. Middlebrooks, a former No. 1 prospect of the Red Sox, had his MLB career derailed due to injuries and ended up playing just parts of six seasons in the majors.
Middlebrooks also witnessed during his climb up Boston's minor league system several can't-miss prospects that never panned out. Sometimes, like with former top Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland, it was just a case of bad luck.
"That was the most talented person I've ever stepped on a field with," Middlebrooks told NESN.com.
A year after drafting Middlebrooks, the Red Sox selected Westmoreland out of high school in the fifth round of the 2008 MLB Draft. It was great story with Westmoreland being a Portsmouth, R.I., native and things got off to a great start, too.
The hard-hitting outfielder batted .296 with seven home runs, 35 RBIs and 19 stolen bases in 60 games with the Lowell Spinners, Boston's Class-A short-season affiliate. His production and promise had him ranked as the 21st prospect in all of baseball in 2010 by Baseball America, according to MassLive.
But Westmoreland ended up playing just one season of professional baseball. A cavernous malformation on his brain stem was found prior to the 2010 season and he underwent multiple brain surgeries. He attempted a comeback -- he got back to taking batting practice and appeared in a couple of games in the very low minor leagues -- but he retired in 2013 at 22 years old.
"He had to teach himself how to walk again, write, talk. He had multiple issues with nerves in his face," Middlebrooks said. "This is a guy that I was like, 'This guy's going to be a Hall of Famer.' Like, he was different."
Forecasting prospects and what they will turn into isn't an exact science. Nobody could have predicted what happened to Westmoreland, who stuck with the game of baseball and is now an assistant coach with Division III UMass-Dartmouth.
But for every Rafael Devers or Jarren Duran, there's another player that never made it into the limelight and had his baseball career just turn into a what-if.