Former Red Sox pitcher Bobby Sprowl coached prospect Trey McNutt in college. (Photo: Shelton State CC Athletics)

Perhaps it is only fitting that Cubs prospect Trey McNutt is being mentioned as a player whom the Red Sox want back in a potential deal involving GM Theo Epstein. After all, McNutt already has a significant tie to the Red Sox.

McNutt went to high school in the small town of Haleyville, Ala. As such, he remained largely off the radar of amateur scouts despite featuring a powerful low- to mid-90s fastball and a wipeout breaking ball. He ended up enrolling at nearby Shelton State Community College, where his junior college coach was a man who owns a place in Sox lore: Bobby Sprowl.

Sprowl was a college star at the University of Alabama, and the Red Sox tabbed him with a second round pick in the 1977 draft. He immediately dominated in A-Ball and did the same the next year in Double-A, pushing his way up to Triple-A Pawtucket, where he continued to perform at a high level despite some command issues.

But then, roughly a year into his professional career, the Red Sox decided to bring the young left-hander up to the majors to debut amidst a pennant race that was suddenly increasingly tight. He had a strong debut (3 runs, 7 innings) in a loss on Sept. 5, 1978, but then made a disastrous second start against the Yankees. Sprowl walked four and permitted three runs while recording just one out on Sept. 10 to cap a four-game sweep that came to be known as the Boston Massacre and that left the Sox — who once possessed a huge lead in the division — in a tie in the AL East with the Yankees.

Sprowl would make just one more appearance in the big leagues for the Sox, earning a no-decision in a Sox win on Sept. 18. He suffered a decline in his command the following spring, and he was traded in 1979 to the Astros, making just 19 more big league appearances before his inability to throw strikes ended his career.

Sprowl entered the coaching ranks, where he went to Shelton State as a head coach and Alabama as a pitching coach before returning to Shelton State. It was there that he recruited McNutt, a big (6-foot-4) right-hander whose powerful frame reminded him of Roger Clemens, “thick and real-physical looking.”

McNutt posted a 7-2 record with a 3.38 ERA, 75 strikeouts and 31 walks in 61 1/3 innings as a freshman at Shelton State in 2009. But the pitcher’s stuff made him far more of a prospect than those raw numbers, or than the interest of scouts would suggest.

“Trey had everything you’d look for in a pitcher,” Sprowl said by phone on Monday. “If you ever saw him throw, and I didn’t get much time in the big leagues but the time that I got in it, there were times that you would say, ‘Hey, he could get big league hitters out because he has that power breaking ball.’

“His stuff was just way ahead of everybody else’s,” he added. “We’ve had maybe a guy or two that might be a little more polished along the lines of command, but not the stuff he had. … That guy was popping mid-90s most of the year.

“He was dominant,” Sprowl continued. “Every now and then he’d have a spurt where he’d drop down [in velocity], but he was dominant. His command was a little off at times but he knew how to pitch. He wasn’t afraid to go inside, go inside with something on it. Days he could maintain the command of his breaking ball for a while, it was total domination.”

Still, even though a handful of teams had been scouting McNutt (including the Red Sox), his six-figure asking price seemingly proved a deterrent in the draft. So, too, did the fact that he was an unknown coming out of high school — someone who did not take part in the showcase circuit.

That, in turn, meant that scouts who might have seen him early in the year — when his velocity was still building — didn’t identify him as a legitimate prospect to follow through the season, or as someone worth the six-figure bonus he sought.

“The one thing that hurt Trey a little bit was scouting nowadays has become a lot of showcases and summer ball and that type of stuff, and he never did any of that,” said Sprowl. “So where a lot of people would get looks in, he’s from a small town in Alabama, a real small country town, where he just didn’t do much of that.

“So a lot of [teams] didn’t get looks at him. And the ones that did early in the spring when it was cold out, he wasn’t quite in shape, and he wasn’t there. But once he got going, he was sitting there about 90-95, any day you get in that area with a  power breaking ball.”

While Sprowl had been given the sense that his pitcher might go in the ninth to 11th rounds, the right-hander remained on the board far beyond that. Indeed, it was not until the 32nd round that McNutt was taken by the Cubs. He ended up signing for $115,000.

Despite some command issues, McNutt dominated in his first summer of pro ball, recording a 0.98 ERA and striking out more than a batter an inning at two short-season levels. Then, in his first full pro year, he had a huge year, going 10-1 with a 2.48 ERA, striking out 132 and walking 37 in 116 1/3 innings between the Single-A Midwest League, the High-A Florida State League and, finally, with a few starts in the Double-A Southern League, where Sprowl saw him pitch.

“The thing that shocked me is that when you look at his numbers, he didn’t walk anybody,” said Sprowl. “I was surprised at the second year as he started moving up, that the command was there every game it seemed like. No walks. A lot of strikeouts. Very few hits.”

McNutt returned to Tennessee to play in the Southern League for all of 2011. While dealing with blister issues, his numbers suffered, as he was 5-6 with a 4.55 ERA, along with 6.2 strikeouts and 3.7 walks per nine innings while spending the entire year in Double-A.

Even so, his stuff — which now includes a mid- to high-90s fastball and what Sprowl called a “knee-buckling” curveball — continues to suggest a pitcher with a significant ceiling, part of the reason why his name would be an obvious one to come up in talks between the Sox and Cubs.

Indeed, Sprowl believes that his former player has the potential to travel the fast track to the majors, not only to emerge as an impact starter or reliever but to sustain that position in a way that the one-time Red Sox phenom could not.

“There’s nobody that I’ve. . . and we’ve had some good ones here . . . that works any harder than he does. I mean, relentless worker,” said Sprowl. “[And] I think mentally, he’s probably close to being ready.

“I could see [a fast track to the majors] happen if a kid is mentally tough enough to make that jump and if he’s mentally tough enough to handle it. You can see kids doing it. I thought I was mentally ready to pitch in the big leagues. When I got there, the biggest downfall I had was that the following spring, I just ended up with whatever you want to call it, the Steve Sax [loss of control] thing, and it just set me back. But I don’t think it was because I wasn’t ready mentally. I realize I had a bad outing against the Yankees one day, but I don’t think that was what set me back. I just think that what set me back was a fluke thing that happened.”

Sprowl does not expect flukes to derail McNutt. Instead, he believes that the biggest question surrounding the right-hander is whether he can develop the third pitch that will push him towards the front of the rotation, or if his two above-average offerings will point him towards the back end of the bullpen.

“It’s all going to depend if he can come up with that change-up and just enough to get guys off the fastball,” said Sprowl. “He’ll be as good as his stuff. If he can learn to command the breaking ball and maintain it, because it’s a swing-and-miss power breaking ball, and you tie that in with the fastball and the way he’s not afraid to go inside with it, he could be a front line guy — maybe a top of the rotation starter or closer.”