The Portsmouth native batted .296 with 7 home runs in Lowell last year.

19-year-old top Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland was diagnosed with a “cavernous malformation of the brain” earlier this week at Massachusetts General Hospital and is currently in Phoenix, Arizona, where he will undergo surgery on the malformation. Westmoreland left spring training on March 4 to get a diagnosis at Mass General, then was flown around the country to speak with three specialists before it was determined that the procedure would be performed by Dr. Robert Spetzler of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. According to ESPN.com, the procedure “carries significant risk of neurological damage and is potentially life-threatening.”

Dr. Joseph Maroon, the vice chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, spoke to ESPN.com about the condition earlier today. According to Maroon, the cavernous malformation “is a congenital abnormality of small abnormal capillaries [tiny blood vessels] that are connecting vessels between the arteries and veins.

“These capillaries have very thin, weak walls and are susceptible to bleeding because of their thin walls. And the cortex, or brain stem, is an extremely sensitive area from which to remove [the malformation]. It’s very unusual to find these abnormalities in the brain stem.”

Maroon also mentioned that Dr. Spetzler “has as much experience with this as anybody in the world. His results with this overall are very good. He is who I would go to if I needed this surgery.”

Westmoreland attended Portsmouth High School in Rhode Island and was selected by the Red Sox in the 5th round of the 2008 draft, signing a $2 million bonus with the team, passing up a scholarship to top baseball school Vanderbilt University. Last year in Single-A Lowell, he batted .296 with 7 home runs in 60 games, missing the end of the season with a broken collarbone after running into an outfield wall.