MLB Pipeline Pinpoints Red Sox Prospect Who Made ‘Big Jump’ In 2023

The Boston Red Sox’s first two picks in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft — Kyle Teel in Round 1 (No. 14) and Nazzan Zanetello in Round 2 (No. 50) — drew praise.

MLB Pipeline this week ranked Teel the No. 4 prospect in the Red Sox farm system (the No. 88 prospect in baseball), while Zanetello checked in at No. 8.

But don’t sleep on the Red Sox’s activity on the international market. Boston seemingly landed a stud out of the Dominican Republic back in January.

Yoeilin Cespedes is the Red Sox’s No. 13 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, which published a piece Thursday looking at which players made the biggest jump in their respective organization’s midseason rankings.

Cespedes landed between a pair of third-rounders — Blaze Jordan (2020) and Antonio Anderson (2023) — on Boston’s updated top 30 list after being unranked to start the 2023 season.

Here’s what MLB Pipeline wrote Thursday about Cespedes:

Cespedes received the largest bonus ($1.4 million) in Boston’s 2023 international class because he was considered one of the more advanced hitters on the market, and he has lived up to that reputation in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. Cespedes is batting .359/.409/.594 with six homers in 41 games and also earning praise for his baseball IQ and work ethic.

There’s obviously a ton of variance when it comes to international prospects, as they’re often signed so young and usually are so raw in their development. Thus, it’s difficult to project Cespedes’ ceiling/floor ahead of his 18th birthday next month.

Still, it’s encouraging from a Red Sox standpoint that Cespedes already is turning heads in his first professional campaign. He was highly regarded before joining the system and has a chance to flourish in the coming years with the right tutelage.

That would continue a positive trend for the Red Sox, who’ve seen several homegrown international players — Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and Brayan Bello, to name a few — grow up to make an impact in Boston.