The Boston Red Sox had one of the top catching prospects in Major League Baseball: Kyle Teel.
However, they traded him for Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet in a deal announced on Wednesday, December 11.
Baseball America ranked Teel as the 26th-best prospect in its September 2024 rankings. That made Teel the Number 4 prospect in the Red Sox farm system, and the third-best catching prospect among all 30 teams, according to these rankings.
Kyle Teel is a 22-year-old catcher from Mahwah, New Jersey, who split time between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester this past season, two minor league affiliates of the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox selected him in the first round of the June 2023 Major League Baseball Draft out of the University of Virginia and since then, he has quickly risen through the team’s farm system. SoxProspects expects that he will make his big league debut next season.
NewBostonPost interviewed Teel at Dunkin’ Park (home of the Hartford Yard Goats, the Colorado Rockies Double-A affiliate) in Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday, April 27.
The interview is below:
1. You graduated high school in 2020 — the COVID lockdown year when high school baseball didn’t exist in many blue states. What was it like having your senior year of high school baseball cancelled and how’d you stay ready for baseball knowing you’d be playing it at the University of Virginia?
When we were playing in my area, all the fields, they put mounds of dirt on the fields so we couldn’t play baseball at all. I was able to get some dry reps by hitting whiffle balls, hitting bottle caps. That’s probably what I did. Wasn’t a fun time.
2. In high school, you were a quarterback at Mahwah High in New Jersey and had games where you rushed for over 200 yards. Does any one play stick out as your favorite from your high school football career?
My junior year of high school, we ran the Philly special and I caught a touchdown in the end zone, thrown by David Riabov, one of our wide receivers — and that was pretty cool.
3. You were primarily a shortstop in high school. What was the biggest adjustment to becoming a full-time catcher in college?
I’ve always caught my whole life, so it really wasn’t an adjustment for me. It was more about putting the work in and grinding every day.
4. You played for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League in 2022. What was your favorite memory of the Cape?
I loved the Cape. I was only there for two weeks because I went to play for the national team after that, but when I was there, just being around the guys and playing baseball and going to the beach, the Cape was a really great experience when I was there.
5. When did you know you wanted to be a big leaguer and at what point did you realize that was feasible?
Ever since I was a little kid. From what I can remember, this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to follow my dad’s footsteps and be a professional baseball player and it goes back to being in school, and having a career class, and refusing to choose any other career other than a professional baseball player, so that’s always what I wanted to do. That class was in sixth grade, I think.
New to NewBostonPost? This isn’t the kind of content you’d expect to find in a Massachusetts news outlet. But here it is. You can get more news and commentary that respects conservative values for two bucks — $2 for two months. Join the real revolution.
