The Red Sox have officially signed 2023 first-round draft selection Kyle Teel, the club announced earlier Friday afternoon.
Teel, who is at Fenway Park to take batting practice ahead of Friday’s series opener against the Mets, received a $4 million signing bonus, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. The slot value for the 14th overall pick in this year’s draft was $4,633,100.
Boston took Teel with its first-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft earlier this month. The Virginia product was regarded by Baseball America as the No. 10 prospect in this summer’s class, which ranked first among draft-eligible catchers.
“Kyle is a guy that we had very high on our board for obvious reasons,” Red Sox amateur scouting director Devin Pearson said of Teel in a team-released statement. “He had an unbelievable 2023 season offensively and is arguably one of the best college athletes in the draft. We think he’s going to be really valuable for us. We’re excited to add an athletic catcher to the system, and we were thrilled to get him with the 14th pick.”
Teel, 21, spent the last three seasons at Virginia after taking himself out of draft consideration in 2020 despite being regarded as a top-100 talent coming out of Mahwah High School in New Jersey. This past spring, the left-handed hitting junior batted a stout .407/.475/.655 with 25 doubles, 13 home runs, 69 RBIs, 67 runs scored, five stolen bases, 32 walks, and 36 strikeouts in 65 games (297 plate appearances) with the Cavaliers.
Defensively, Teel made 65 starts at catcher this season and caught all but 23 innings for the Hoos. In that time frame, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound backstop threw out 15 of 24 possible base stealers. Between what he did on both sides of the ball, Teel was named the 2023 ACC Player of the Year as well as a consensus first team All-American.
While he has past experience in the outfield, it appears as though the Red Sox are committed to developing Teel as a catcher moving forward. As such, he will undoubtedly emerge as the top catching prospect in Boston’s farm system ahead of the likes of Nathan Hickey, Johanfran Garcia, Brooks Brannon, and Enderso Lira, among others.
Teel, who does not turn 22 until next February, is the first catcher the Red Sox have taken in the first round of a draft since Blake Swihart, who was selected 26th overall in 2011. He is also the first college player Boston has used a first-round pick on since 2017, when Missouri right-hander Tanner Houck was taken with the 24th overall pick.
In addition to Teel, the Red Sox announced that they signed 13 additional 2023 draft picks in fourth-rounder Matt Duffy, compensatory fourth-rounder Kristian Campbell, fifth-rounder Connelly Early, sixth-rounder, CJ Weins, seventh-rounder Caden Rose, eight-rounder Trennor O’Donnell, ninth-rounder Blake Wehunt, 10th-rounder Ryan Ammons, 12th-rounder Max Carlson, 13th-rounder Cade Feeney, 14th-rounder Jojo Ingrassia, 16th-rounder Isaac Stebens, and 18th-rounder Zach Fogell.
Of the eight players who have yet to officially sign, second-rounder Nazzan Zanetello is arguably the most notable. That being said, the 18-year-old shortstop out of Christian Brothers College High School (St. Louis, Mo.) is expected to forego his commitment to Arkansas by putting pen to paper in Boston on Saturday, per MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo.
(Picture of Kyle Teel: Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)
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