Vanderbilt will always have a special place in Red Sox David Price’s life. Price shows his support in the Red Sox draft selection of Stephen Scott.
Once a Vanderbilt guy, always a Vanderbilt guy. David Price had some encouraging and welcoming comments when he found out that the Boston Red Sox selected a Vanderbilt player in the 10th round of the 2019 MLB draft.
5’11” outfielder Stephen Scott will be joining the Single-A Lowell Spinners. He’s a trained outfielder but has some versatility and was able to step up to fill a missing Vanderbilt hole behind the plate.
In 2019, he accumulated a .325 BA, .445 OBP, and .583 SLG in 69 games. The young 22-year-old had dedicated four years to Vanderbilt and majored in economics. Scott’s true passion is baseball.
He credits Vanderbilt for teaching good time management skills and effective work habits. As a junior he led the team with 15 home runs and was named Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week in consecutive weeks. He was a force to reckoned with when runners were in scoring position, batting .315, had 12 multi-hit games, had 9 multi-RBI games.
Scott helped the Vanderbilt Commodores win their second College World Series Title in 2019. Scott was initially drafted last year by the Miami Marlins, but he turned it down to finish school. Baseball coach Cobin was quoted saying,
"“We are lucky to have this guy back — he’s a program guy in every way. Stephen had a very good junior year both offensively and defensively. He entered the program as an outfielder but showed the athletic ability and versatility to go behind the plate. He settled in as our go-to guy at the catcher position last year and did a great job handling the pitchers. Stephen is tough, is a winner and will do absolutely whatever the team asks of him.”"
As Mass Live’s Christopher Smith points out, David Price still displays pride and support for the school that he attended. He visits the university during the baseball offseason and it was a usual sight to see Price supporting Vanderbilt gear during the College World Series. He knows the young stars and keeps track of them,
"“We all keep up with one another. So it’s cool to be able to have one in the same organization and be able to see him a little bit more often. I’ll definitely root for him, too.”"
Scott has played 3 games in the minors and has a .600 BA, .636 OBP, and .800 SLG. While it’s still very early in his playing career, Scott shows defensive versatility giving the Red Sox organization options. In addition, he’s a solid offensive player.
The high praise from coach Cobin demonstrate the player that Scott is, the talent he has, and the willingness to step forward to help the team produce. Scott has David Price supporting him as well, which is also a good and promising sign. It’ll be interesting to see what the future has in store for Scott. Hopefully, we’ll be lucky enough to see Scott and Price playing at Fenway together.