Devin Pearson: Kyle Teel A ‘No Brainer’ Pick For Red Sox
Did the Red Sox make the right call when they selected Kyle Teel in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft? Teel, a catcher out of Virginia, was widely expected to go in the top ten of the draft (link to draft profile). New amateur scouting director Devin Pearson talked about what went into the selection calling the Teel pick a ‘no brainer’.
“We didn’t really know it was going to be a possibility until the draft played itself out,” Pearson said. “I think we expected him to go higher. But a draft is a draft. To be able to add a catcher in the middle of the first round, a college catcher, doesn’t happen all the time. For us, it was kind of a no-brainer at that point to draft him.”
“He played on our scout ball teams, he played for the Red Sox East Coast Pro team where he played every position, I think, besides pitcher that weekend,” Pearson said. “It was kind of a running joke, like, ‘Where’s Teel going to play next?’ We’ve had a really good relationship with him from high school and that continued when he got to college.”
Teel, 21, was a consensus All-American and the ACC Player of the Year this season. The draft experts seem to be fairly high on the selection. Teel was ranked 7th overall on MLB.com and 10th for Baseball America. Not a bad piece of business to get the best catcher in the draft with pick 14.
It will be curious to see how Teel pans out. Had I been in charge it would have been really tempting to take Enrique Bradfield who went three picks later to Baltimore. You can’t teach the kind of speed Bradfield has.
Teel has a pretty clear path to the majors right now. Connor Wong is okay and really the only catcher on the roster worth anything. Outside out super young catching prospect Johanfran Garcia, it’s pretty barren in the system.
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