Why 2023 First-Round Draft Pick Was ‘No-Brainer’ For Red Sox

A few hours after completing a sweep of the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park, the Red Sox organization received a pleasant surprise.

Boston was expecting Kyle Teel to be off the board by the time the franchise made its first pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft on Sunday night. But much to the Red Sox’s delight, the Virginia product still was up for grabs when the club went on the clock to make the 14th overall selection.

And with Teel still available, the organization didn’t need to deliberate much about its top draft pick.

“We didn’t really know it was going to be a possibility until the draft played itself out,” amateur scouting director Devin Pearson told reporters, per MassLive. “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.”

Teel was widely considered the best catcher in this year’s class, but the New Jersey native boasts a versatile skillset that the Red Sox previously witnessed from a front-row seat.

“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 told reporters. “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.”

Although Teel has the makeup to potentially play multiple positions in the big leagues, his goal is to slot behind the dish “for a long time.” Someone who could help Teel fulfill that dream is Jason Varitek, a former Boston backstop who the 21-year-old has “always looked up to.”