Hunter Renfroe already had his plan. The Red Sox, however, were going to do their best to try and change it.
The star baseball player from Copiah (MS) Academy had let the baseball world his intentions leading into the 2010 MLB Draft. He was going to play baseball last Mississippi State.
But the talent of the kid from Crystal Springs made Red Sox scout Danny Watkins do his darnedest to make the decision a bit more difficult than Renfroe probably had anticipated.
So, in the 31st round (953rd overall pick) the Red Sox scooped up Renfroe. (It also just so happened to be the same round Oakland tried to execute a similar plan with a California high-schooler named Aaron Judge.)
No dice.
"I basically told everybody going into that that I wanted to go to college," Renfroe said on a Zoom call with the Boston media after signing his one-year, $3.1 million deal with the Red Sox.
"I really appreciated everybody’s interest out of high school. But may desire was that I wanted to play college baseball and better myself educationally and physically as far as growing up and becoming more of a grown up instead of a little kid. When I got drafted I went to Boston and did a little pre-signing game deal and I really saw how mature a lot of the guys were signing out of high school and college and stuff like that. As myself, I felt like I needed to grow in that aspect. They gave me a pretty good offer as far as coming out of high school in the 31st round. I told them it had to be quite a big number for me to sign. I could have gotten drafted a lot higher than I did but like I said I told everybody I wanted to go to college. There was no need to draft me. But Danny Watkins called me after the second day of the Draft. He called me and was like, ‘Hey, what would it take for you to go?’ I told him a number. He said, ‘Alright, done. We’re going to draft you tomorrow.’ I’m like, ‘Alright. Whatever.’"
The plan worked out for Renfroe, who ultimate was taken as the 13th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres. He would make his big league debut in 2016 before being dealt to Tampa Bay heading into the 2020 season.
Now, after just one year with the Rays -- struggling to a .156 batting average and .645 OPS to go along with eight homers in 42 games -- the power-hitting outfielder has found his way to that original suitor.
“I’m very excited to be part of the Boston Red Sox," he added. "Obviously they were the first ones to take a shot at me in high school. They drafted me in high school in 2010. I’m pretty excited to get back and to sign with them, that’s pretty exciting. I’m probably going to text Danny Watkins after this and it took 10 years for me to sign with the Red Sox but I finally did it. It’s pretty cool and I’m very excited for it.
"As far as last year, and what happened last year, it was an unprecedented season that’s never been seen before in history. It was tough for everybody. People, players, coaches, family members, everybody and I think not necessarily getting the amount of at-bats that everybody is used to and things like that. It was kind of an overwhelming experience for everybody. We had a great season as a team, obviously went to the World Series, a few games from winning the World Series, it was a lot of fun, we were excited, I wouldn’t have it any other way. We had a great time."