This time final yr Chase Meidroth was nonetheless in school, a junior infield standout trying to assist the University of San Diego baseball workforce gear up for its convention match.
He may scarcely have imagined the journey that awaited within the weeks and months to return.
Taken within the fourth spherical of the 2022 MLB Draft, Meidroth has rocketed via the Red Sox minor league ranks and now stands as one of many fastest-rising prospects within the group. Since making his skilled debut final August, the 21-year-old has been promoted thrice, enjoying three video games of rookie ball earlier than incomes promotion after only one month at each Low-A Salem and High-A Greenville.
Since being known as as much as Double-A Portland earlier this month he’s proven no indicators of slowing down, however amid all of the early success Meidroth is striving to stay within the second and benefit from the experience.
“It’s been fun. I’m just trying to embrace every moment,” Meidroth stated final week. “I haven’t really had any expectations of where I should be, where I needed to be, I just wanted to have fun at every place I was at.”
An elite eye on the plate
Ever since Meidroth first burst onto the scene within the Northwoods League as a junior in 2021, the Manhattan Beach, California, native’s most notable instrument has been his means to manage the strike zone and draw walks.
That summer time Meidroth drew 40 walks whereas solely putting out 13 occasions in 51 video games, and between his First Team All-Conference breakout season at San Diego in 2022, his expertise final summer time within the Cape Cod Baseball League and at each step of the Red Sox minor league ladder, he’s constantly walked greater than he’s struck out.
So far in 52 skilled video games Meidroth has hit .319 with a .458 on-base share together with seven house runs, 35 RBI and 42 walks towards 36 strikeouts. This season he batted .338 in Greenville, and since being promoted to Portland he’s batted .286 with a .422 OBP in his first 10 video games.
Brian Abraham, the Red Sox director of participant improvement, stated Meidroth has proven he was prepared for the membership to problem him and that he boasts an unusual grasp of the strike zone.
“He’s just an intelligent overall player, he understands his strengths, he understands his hot-cold zones, where he hits the ball hard, where he doesn’t,” Abraham stated. “And I think he just has a really good eye. Not everyone has that necessarily, I’m not going to say vision but his ability to see pitches, his ability to take pitches in the shadow on the edge of the plate when they’re close, he has a really strong ability to do that.”
“I think I’ve seen him chase maybe two pitches out of the strike zone so far since being here,” stated fellow Portland infielder Nick Yorke, one other of Boston’s prime prospects. “It’s just been impressive.”
Avid surfer overcame years of adversity
Meidroth’s meteoric rise got here solely after two years of setbacks and frustration, because the infielder barely noticed the sector his first two seasons in school.
As a freshman in 2020 he appeared in solely 13 video games earlier than the season was lower brief by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the world shut down and unable to do a lot of anything, Meidroth stated he and a few highschool buddies picked up browsing, which has change into a permanent off-field ardour.
“That’s where it really started, I was able to take three months of doing nothing but surfing, because that was the only thing you really could do,” Meidroth stated. “You were going mornings, then back in the afternoon, then back at night. That’s when it really started but this offseason was fun, I was able to take a month away from baseball and do that, go surf and be around the beach.”
Meidroth was additionally restricted to 6 video games as a sophomore resulting from a shoulder damage, however irritating because it was he stated the downtime proved priceless to his improvement, because it allowed him to take a step again and pay nearer consideration to how the upperclassmen went about their enterprise.
Between that and his work with the teaching workers behind the scenes, his efforts paid off when he batted .329 with 10 house runs, 40 RBI and a .984 OPS throughout his breakout junior yr.
“That wasn’t just a one-year success, that was three years of building blocks,” Meidroth stated. “It was one percent better every day, and that was starting when I was 17 coming in.”
Models sport after Pedroia
Standing 5-foot-9, 170 kilos, Meidroth isn’t essentially the most bodily imposing participant. Because of that he’s drawn inspiration from one other undersized infielder, Red Sox legend Dustin Pedroia.
“I was always a smaller kid so watching that guy bringing the energy, that’s who I always modeled my game after,” stated Meidroth stated. “He had a lot of talent, don’t get me wrong, but his energy and attitude was everything.”
Like Pedroia, Meidroth is primarily a second baseman, although he’s versatile sufficient to play everywhere in the diamond and since being promoted to Portland has primarily performed third.
He’s additionally demonstrated a aptitude for the dramatic. In his Double-A debut on May 10 Meidroth went 3 for six with two RBI in Portland’s 6-5 win over the Somerset Patriots, capping issues off with a walk-off RBI single within the backside of the tenth.
“I actually can’t remember the last time I hit a walk-off so that was a pretty cool moment,” Meidroth stated.
Meidroth finally hopes to observe in Pedroia’s footsteps and go well with up for the Boston Red Sox, however whereas he couldn’t have requested for a greater begin to his professional profession, he acknowledges he nonetheless has an extended approach to go earlier than he’s prepared for the massive leagues.
“I’m happy with where I’m at, I’m excited about the future but it’s one day at a time still,” Meidroth stated. “I’m still a long ways away from up there.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com