Red Sox select Tate Matheny with their fourth-round pick

With their fourth-round pick, the 111th-overall pick in the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft, the Red Sox have selected Tate Matheny, a center fielder from Missouri State.

Tate is the son of St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. Listed at 6-feet, 190 pounds, Matheny is best known for his natural baseball instincts that allow his tools to play up, according to MLB.com. He has strong bat speed and controls the strike zone at an advanced level for his age. He is not a burner in the field or the base paths, but many scouts see him sticking in center due to his strong reads and instincts. Though he has no true elite tool, some scouts think his all-around tool set and acumen for the game will carry him to the big leagues. In the pre-draft rankings, he came in at 107th for Baseball America, 187th for Perfect Game, and 117th for Kiley McDaniels of Fangraphs.

Matheny also fits into Boston's trend of picking former Team USA players, as he was on the 2014 collegiate team. He played in 26 games for Team USA last summer, finishing with a batting line of .288/.329/.350, including a home run and six steals without being caught. In college at MSU, Matheny captured the team's MVP award in his first two seasons. As a freshman in 2013, he batted .336/.396/.459 with four home runs and four steals. In 2014, he added a bit more power, batting .330/.421/.528 with 10 home runs and seven steals. This season, he finished at .291/.417/.449, but upped his steal total to 12 in 14 attempts.

Scouting info was compiled from industry publications including Baseball America, FanGraphs, Perfect Game USA, and MLB.com.

Photo Credit: Tate Matheny by missouristatebears.com

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