Thomas White had barely moved into his new dorm at Phillips Academy when his phone started blowing up.

Then 14 years old, the tall left-handed pitcher from Rowley had always been regarded as one of the region’s most promising young talents. But now he was about to go national, as news had just broken that White was now the No. 1 ranked player in the incoming high school class of 2023.

Nothing was the same after that, and it’s been a whirlwind journey for White ever since.

Four years later White has developed into one of the top baseball prospects to ever come out of Massachusetts and is considered a likely first-round pick in next month’s MLB Draft. At 6-foot-5, 215 pounds, White boasts mid-to-high 90s velocity and a combination of physical gifts and off-field intangibles that have scouts across the game salivating.

“He’s the most talented pitcher at that age I’ve seen anywhere,” said Kevin Graber, who coached White his first three years at Phillips and who recently took over as manager of the Tennessee Smokies, the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate. “And I’ve been everywhere, man.”

White first made waves nationally after throwing 91 mph as an incoming freshman at the 2019 Perfect Game BCS National Tournament, which tied the event’s all-time best fastball and played a sizable role in his being tabbed the No. 1 player in his class by Perfect Game a few months later.

Needless to say anticipation was high for his Phillips debut the following spring, but thanks to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic it wound up being a while before anyone got to see him suit up in an Andover uniform.

Because of the pandemic, White’s freshman season was canceled and his sophomore season was heavily limited, with Phillips playing just 12 games with no fans, scouts or spectators of any kind allowed in attendance. During that stretch the only way to see him was at summer tournaments and showcases, which kept a lot of the spotlight at bay during his early high school years.

“I think in an odd way it may have helped Thomas,” Graber said. “It allowed Thomas to be like an airplane gradually ascending off a runway rather than a rocket ship blasting off into outer space his freshman year.”

Once he did finally set foot on a high school mound under the proverbial bright lights, White more than lived up to the hype.

Over the past two seasons White has gone 11-3 with a 1.02 ERA and 165 strikeouts over 75 innings, allowing only 20 hits. He was twice named Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year and is ranked the No. 4 high school player in the country by Baseball America, and the top left-handed pitcher.

White’s starts became can’t miss events, but despite often finding himself at the center of a circus-like atmosphere, those around him raved about his maturity and the way he never let things get to his head.

“We’re very proud of him, we think he’s handled it really well,” said Joanna White, Thomas’ mother.

“He’s got a tremendous work ethic, we’ve always instilled that in him but he’s taken it to the next level,” added Tim White, Thomas’ father, who recalled an instance where they got home late one Sunday from a long weekend of travel baseball and White immediately went to the gym. “He’s extremely determined and once he sets a goal there’s no stopping him.”

In addition to his elite fastball, White has also refined his offspeed offerings. He boasts a quality changeup that sits in the low 80s along with a hard curveball that acts like a slider, and proving he could fully utilize both was a priority this season even though he was fully capable of just blowing away every hitter he faced.

Beyond his pitch mix, impressive build and intelligence — he graduated from Phillips this past weekend with “superior” marks, the highest on the prestigious prep school’s grading scale — the thing that sets White apart the most is his smooth delivery, which allows him to generate mid-to-high 90s velocity despite seemingly expending no effort on each pitch.

“You see a lot of young pitchers that throw hard but they have a lot of moving parts and a lot of fast, aggressive motions in their motion, you know? He’s quite the opposite,” said Rusty Tucker, the former Gloucester High star and San Diego Padres minor leaguer who has served as White’s pitching coach with Legends Baseball since he was 9. “He’s very smooth, he’s very strong, and that’s what a lot of scouts are really impressed with, his effortless mechanics.”

“Everything just unwinds on you and the hand is just along for the ride, and lo and behold it’s on the hitter at like 97 even though it doesn’t look like Thomas is trying to throw hard,” Graber said. “It’s truly effortless in a way that I just haven’t seen elsewhere.”

One of White’s most noteworthy appearances came at Fenway Park in the summer of 2021, when he ironically took the mound in a Yankees uniform during a showcase organized by scouts from both teams.

In attendance that day was Red Sox vice president of scouting, development and integration Gus Quattlebaum, who is himself a former Phillips standout and who also attended White’s final high school start against archrival Phillips Exeter last month — along with probably 30-40 scouts from across the league.

Is it realistic to imagine White could one day take the mound at Fenway again, this time in a Red Sox uniform?

It’s been seven years since the Red Sox last selected a high school pitcher in the first round (Jay Groome, 2016), but while Quattlebaum acknowledged the club has tended to be more aggressive in pursuing hitters recently, they wouldn’t shy away from an elite prep arm if the right one came along.

“If you see someone who can be an impact, top-of-the-rotation type arm, there have been plenty that have panned out,” Quattlebaum said. “It’s a risky demographic, certainly, but if you pick the right one they can make a big impact on your organization.”

Will the Red Sox even get the chance? Projecting any MLB Draft is notoriously difficult, but generally White is viewed as a mid-first rounder who could realistically be available when the Red Sox pick at No. 14 overall.

That being said, he could easily go inside the top 10 if the right team falls in love with his talent, and the fact that he’s a lefty could also work in his favor.

“We tend to treat them as if they’re premium position players because they’re more unique, harder to find,” Quattlebaum said. “I think it weighs in to teams when they’re going to decide how they’re going to rank on the board.”

No matter what happens next month White is in a no-lose situation. If he is drafted in the first round and signs, he would likely receive a bonus worth between $3 million to $6 million, possibly more if he goes in the top 10. If he slides down the board or receives less money than expected, he could simply honor his commitment to Vanderbilt, one of the nation’s pre-eminent college baseball powerhouses.

Regardless of which path he chooses, White’s future is bright. He has already established himself as a once-in-a-generation talent and one of Massachusetts’ all-time prep greats. Now he’ll finally have a chance to start chasing his lifelong dream of playing in the big leagues.

“Obviously there’s not too many kids from this area that become the prospect he’s become,” Tucker said. “It’s something we probably won’t see in this area again for a while.”

Arráez on historic pace

It’s been 82 years since Ted Williams became the last MLB player to bat over .400 for the season, and while the odds are against Luis Arráez breaking that mark, he’s on pace to come closer than anyone since.

Entering the weekend, the Miami Marlins infielder led all of baseball with an astonishing .403 average more than a third of the way through the season. Arráez, who won the American League batting title with the Minnesota Twins last season after hitting .316, has taken his game to another level since being traded to Miami and is now putting himself in rarified air.

Since Williams hit .406 in 1941 only two players have ever topped .390 in a season, those being Hall of Famers George Brett (.390, 1980) and Tony Gwynn (.394, 1994). Brett stood at .400 as late in the season as Sept. 19, while Gwynn’s epic run was halted by the players strike that abruptly cut short the 1994 season.

If Arráez can keep within striking distance of .400 into August and September his pursuit could become one of the most exciting baseball stories in recent memory. Even if he can’t there’s a good chance he’ll still finish with among the most prolific batting seasons of the 21st century.

Since 2000 the record for highest average in a season is .372, a mark reached in 2000 by Red Sox star Nomar Garciaparra and Colorado’s Todd Helton, and again by Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki in 2004 when he broke the MLB single-season record for hits in a season with 262. The game has generally been trending away from prototypical high-average, low-power guys, and since 2010 the only player to even top .350 in a non-COVID-shortened season is Josh Hamilton (.359, 2010).

Simply put, they don’t make them like Arráez anymore, and even if he doesn’t hit for power or walk much, what he’s doing is remarkable and deserves to be celebrated.

Surgery for DeGrom

When the Texas Rangers signed Jacob deGrom this past offseason to a five-year, $185 million deal, they were making a risky gamble that the dominant but injury-prone 34-year-old could stay healthy and remain one of the most scintillating pitchers of his generation.

This week, that bet blew up in their face.

The Rangers announced Tuesday that deGrom needs Tommy John surgery and will miss the rest of this season and most of next year. DeGrom only made six starts into his new deal with the Rangers, going 2-0 with a 2.67 ERA and 45 strikeouts in 30.1 innings. For that limited production, Texas will pay deGrom $30 million this season and $40 million next year.

Beyond the implications for the Rangers and for deGrom’s career, the injury is a huge bummer for baseball fans.

Since debuting in 2014, deGrom has put together a run of dominance that rivals Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Pedro Martinez among the best in baseball history. He won Rookie of the Year in 2014, earned his first of four All-Star nods in 2015 and won back-to-back National League Cy Young Awards with the New York Mets in 2018 and 2019.

He put together another outstanding year in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and posted a historic first half in 2021, striking out 146 batters with a 1.08 ERA in 92 innings while issuing only 11 walks, but that season was cut short midseason by elbow trouble and he’s battled one injury or another ever since.

Now he likely won’t take the mound again until late 2024, by which point he’ll be 36 years old.

Whether or not deGrom will ever be the same remains to be seen, but this will be the right-hander’s second Tommy John surgery, and the list of pitchers who have come back from even one in their mid-30s is short. One reason for optimism, Justin Verlander had Tommy John surgery and missed nearly two full years in his late 30s and came back to win his third Cy Young Award last season at age 39.

Maybe deGrom can pull off something similar, but in the short term his injury is a huge blow to the sport.

Vasil earns honor

Former BC High standout Mike Vasil has been dominating Double-A ever since being called up out of spring training, and earlier this week the New York Mets prospect was named Eastern League Pitcher of the Month for May.

Vasil, a right-hander and former University of Virginia star, posted a 2.52 ERA while holding opposing batters to a .159 average in four starts over the month. He had a stretch where he allowed only one run in 21 innings, and on May 11 he posted his best start of the season, allowing one run over eight innings with no walks and seven strikeouts.

Vasil came into the weekend with a 3.13 ERA on the season with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and boasted an eye-popping strikeout to walk ratio of 54 to 6.