I will never forget that moment: Red Sox pick means extra for J.J. Altobelli
Their first-round pick caught the industry by surprise, their second-round pick was lost to a sign-stealing scandal and their third-round pick was something of an internet celebrity — at least by high school baseball standards.
But it was the fourth-round pick who seemed to mean a little extra to the Red Sox on Thursday.
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His name was Jeremy Wu-Yelland. He’s a big, left-handed pitcher out of the University of Hawaii. He throws hard, made a strong impression in the Cape Cod League and might work best as a reliever in pro ball. Pretty standard stuff for a fourth-round pick.
Except the scout who found him was J.J. Altobelli, and in this year of all years, it meant a little more for the Red Sox to choose one of Altobelli’s guys.
His father, John, stepmother, Keri, and 13-year-old sister, Alyssa, were killed in the January helicopter crash that also took the life of Kobe Bryant and five others.
“It was very meaningful to me,” Altobelli said via text message from his home in Newport Beach, Calif. “There is no doubt it has been an extremely difficult year so far. All the credit goes to Jeremy and the talent he has and the work he has put in to put himself in the position to be selected. But to be able to have a player selected this year, especially with what has gone on in my life, I will never forget that moment. Means everything to me, and I’m thankful to (scouting director Paul Toboni) and the staff for making that selection. Jeremy has a bright future, and I’m excited to see what he does with the opportunity.”
Altobelli, 29, was at home with his fiancee, Carly, at around 9 p.m. ET, the 118th overall pick inching closer, when Red Sox national scouting supervisor Dan Madson called.
“I was anxious because of how different this year’s draft is, so you never really know what is going t happen,” Altobelli said. “But the phone rang … and I was pumped when he told me we were selecting Jeremy.”
The Red Sox officially list 18 area scouts, plus a handful of cross-checkers and supervisors, in a tightknit amateur scouting department. Each area scout is assigned to a different state or region, and in this year’s shortened draft, only four of them had one of their players chosen. Altobelli happened to be one of them. In this year of all years.
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“I wish it was a traditional draft where we could announce the pick over the conference line,” Toboni said. “Because it would have been very cool to dedicate that pick to his family. He’s had such a tough year, and he’s shown me, man, just how strong someone can be. And his sister, Lexi, too, and his fiancee, Carly. They taught me so much this year.”
Even in the best of years, the University of Hawaii is tough to scout because of its location. Altobelli’s assigned area is Southern California, which is itself a hotbed of amateur baseball talent — it’s also where his father was the beloved, longtime baseball coach at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa — but he also takes on Hawaii, and he long ago took a liking to Wu-Yelland.
“The communication right from the get-go was on point in terms of this kid’s talent,” Toboni said. “J.J. really drove it with how well he communicated. We were able to get a really robust process early on the kid, which left us in a really good position to select him in the fourth round.”
And now, they wait. Player development takes time. Major leaguers don’t happen overnight. The process can be slow and painful. A lot of things are like that. But every once in a while, when everything else is impossibly difficult, there’s a wonderful moment when something good happens.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy’s a 10-year major leaguer, and J.J. knew it all the way along,” Toboni said. “And (he) really never doubted himself, but also didn’t get really in your face and let you know that he really loved the dude. He just quietly went about his job, and that’s kind of the way he walks through life, and I admire it, really, on a daily basis.”
(Photo of Wu-Yelland: Wade Payne / Associated Press)
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