2024 Debut? Red Sox Comfortable With Prospect’s Quick Rise

The Boston Red Sox are wasting no time in getting Kyle Teel acclimated to professional baseball.

Teel, who the Red Sox selected with the No. 14 pick in the 2023 Major League Baseball Draft, has absolutely rocketed through Boston's farm system. The 21-year-old initially began in the Florida Complex League, where he played a total of three games before getting the call to High-A Greenville. He spent less than a month in his first stop out of rookie ball, being promoted to Double-A Portland on Sept. 5.

That is a fast rise. In fact, the No. 4 prospect in the Red Sox system (according to MLB.com) is actually doing something unheard of in the Red Sox organization.

"It's unique within recent Red Sox history from what I've read, but if you look league-wide -- at least in 2023 -- there have been close to 10 players that have reached Double-A so far this year in the draft class," Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham told Ian Browne of MLB.com. "Generally, I think it represents teams wanting to take advantage of players that are more mature, advanced on and off the field and put them at a level where they compete against comparable competition skill and age-wise.

"That is the case with Kyle -- he is advanced on both sides of the ball and has also performed to the point where we want to continue to challenge him this year. Not only is he advanced on the field, but his preparation, his understanding of the game and his maturity as a young person has been something we've been excited to incorporate into the organization so far and Double-A at this point in the year best allows that."

Teel's stop in Double-A will undoubtedly be his longest, at least to this point. The Red Sox often use Portland as the ultimate test before they make a decision on where a player fits into their plans.

There are some players who have made the MLB jump straight from Double-A (Andrew Benintendi, Jeff Bagwell), some who get the bump to Triple-A before making a swift transition to the bigs (Ceddanne Rafaela, Jacoby Ellsbury) and others who will make Triple-A their home for the long haul after Double-A.

There's a real chance Teel fits into the former category.

There isn't a catcher more qualified to make the jump should the Red Sox need to make a call, which has happened twice in 2023. The likelihood that Connor Wong and Reese McGuire each stay healthy throughout an entire season is low, and if Teel is already on the verge of getting a promotion -- let's say next June -- could the Red Sox just go ahead and give him a shot in the bigs?

Crazier things have happened.