Copperas Cove's Sanders drafted by Boston Red Sox
By DAVID MORRIS
Cove Leader-Press
Since a very young age, Copperas Cove native Travis Sanders has had his hands around the handle of a bat with his glove and ball nearby.
The 2022 District 12-6A Offensive Player of the Year and Texas Tech commit learned this week that one of his lifelong dreams of playing Major League Baseball is within arms’ reach.
With the 429th overall pick in the 2022 MLB first-year player draft, the Boston Red Sox selected Copperas Cove High School’s shortstop.
“This is definitely a dream come true,” Sanders said. “To hear my name called in the draft is what I’ve been working towards for so long. It’s a huge honor and I am so thankful for everyone who has supported me along the way.”
At the young age of 18, he is regarded by Baseball America as one of the top infield prospects in this draft class.
Sanders has played travel ball during his offseason with the Dawgs and graced the lineups of the Cove Hounds, CanesDiabloz and Dallas Tigers when not suited up in blue pinstripes for Coppeas Cove.
As a junior at Copperas Cove in 2021, Sanders batted .437 with 12 doubles, six triples, seven home runs, 30 RBIs, and 16 stolen bases en route to being named the First Team All-State shortstop by the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association.
His senior year when he was named Offensive Player of the year for District 12-6A he batted .450 with 36 hits in 80 at bats. He scored 32 runs, while walking 28 times and striking out 19 times in the Dawgs bi-district qualifier.
“It’s truly been a joy for Brent and I to be Trav’s biggest fans on this amazing journey,” his mother Jenni Sanders said. “Years of practice in the craziest of weather conditions, thousands of miles driven all over the nation, all the sacrifices made have been so worth it now. Now we get to be his biggest fans on a brand new field of play and we are so excited for the next chapter.”
Sanders at 6-foot-1, 185 lbs is described as having a “quiet, balanced stance” at the plate and uses his hands to spray the ball to all fields with consistently hard contact.
Perfect Game USA, graded Sanders a 10 in the pre-draft analysis.
“He is potential very high draft pick and/or Elite level college. He is noted as an athletic defender with plenty of barrell skills, a line drive swing plane, he moves well to the ball with nice balanced and body control throughout. In other words, he has the tools to stick at shortstop,” as posted in the pre-draft analysis website.
Sanders, who turns 19 in December, becomes the fourth high school infielder the Red Sox have taken in this year’s draft, joining first-rounder Mikey Romero, second-rounder Cutter Coffey, and 13th-rounder Gavin Kilen.
The allotted slot value for the 429th selection in the 2022 draft comes in at $125,000.
Sanders will have until August 1 to decide if he wants to sign with Boston now or rather go to Texas Tech and re-enter the draft in a few years.