I do think that there is much more going on in this situation than is being reported.
However, in our local soccer leagues, children play up a year or so when they have the skills and there aren't enough older kids to complete the roster. If the next year, there are enough older kids to play, the younger gets to play back down in the other age group. Some special exceptions have been made for truly exceptional players to always play up.
Another solution to me would have been to build the child's skills by letting him pitch a few innings and then move him to another position. Yes, he appears to have talent for pitching but who knows, with practice he might be an even better short stop. I know in soccer, none of the children have set positions. They keep moving every few minutes to a new position.
As far as redshirting and not competing at your acheived ranks. I firmly disagree. DH, DS and I also hold black belts in Tae Kwon Do and I would never have allowed DS to compete at a lower rank just to maybe do better. However, there were a few competitions that limited him to competing at a lower rank due to his age. In those events, he had a handicap put on him to even the competition. I preferred that to him trying to spar against competitors 4 years older than he was.
But in my opinion, that handicap was valid since he had a higher skill level and had earned a higher rank. This baseball situation does not seem that black and white. As reported, there do not seem to be any rules for pitching speed that would prevent him from playing in that bracket.
