The Boston Red Sox selected 22 total players in the 2023 MLB Draft. You can check out a full list of their picks here, but what should we make of it all?
Here are five takeaways from Boston's draft, which marked its fourth under chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
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A steal in Kyle Teel?
Two years ago, the Red Sox were pleasantly surprised when Marcelo Mayer fell in their lap at No. 4 overall. The high school shortstop was almost unanimously predicted by draft experts to go to the Pittsburgh Pirates with the first overall selection.
Teel isn't the No. 1 ranked draft prospect Mayer was, but his slide to the Red Sox at No. 14 left many scratching their heads. The Virginia catcher, who was the 2023 ACC Player of the Year, was MLB Pipeline's seventh-ranked draft prospect and a top-10 pick in nearly every mock draft.
"We didn’t really know it was going to be a possibility until the draft played itself out," Red Sox amateur scouting director Devin Pearson told reporters Sunday night, via MassLive's Chris Cotillo. "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, 21, slashed .407/.475/.655 with 13 homers and 69 RBIs in 65 games for the Cavaliers last season.
Chaim Bloom still has a type
This was the first draft since Bloom took over the Red Sox front office that he didn't take a high-school middle infielder with his first-round selection. He drafted second baseman Nick Yorke in 2020, Mayer in 2021, and shortstop Mikey Romero in 2022.
Teel broke that streak, but Bloom made up for it with his next two picks. The Red Sox selected high-school shortstops Nazzan Zanetello and Antonio Anderson in Rounds 2 and 3, respectively. Four of the five shortstops they drafted were high-schoolers.
Zanetello hit .429 at an 18-and-under World Cup qualifying tournament last November. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder has five-tool potential and is athletic enough to play multiple positions, including center field.
Anderson is a switch-hitter who, like Zanetello, can hit for both average and power. The 6-foot-3 Atlanta native is listed at shortstop, but scouts believe he'll eventually switch to third base in the pros.
Xander Bogaerts, Nathan Eovaldi compensation
Boston had two compensatory picks in this year's draft -- picks 132 and 133 -- with shortstop Xander Bogaerts leaving for the San Diego Padres and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi joining the Texas Rangers in free agency.
The 132nd overall pick was Kristian Campbell, a shortstop out of Georgia Tech. Campbell hit .376/.484/.549 with 29 walks to only 17 strikeouts this past season. The 6-foot-3 21-year-old could spend most of his time at second base as there are questions about his arm on the left side of the infield.
Justin Riemer, a shortstop out of Wright State, was the Red Sox' pick at 133. Like Campbell, he hits for contact and has demonstrated outstanding plate discipline at the collegiate level. The 21-year-old spends time at both middle infield positions, so it remains to be seen where he'll be used most as a pro.
Plenty of pitching
Despite his affinity for shortstops, Bloom didn't shy away from drafting pitchers this year. Twelve of the Red Sox' 22 selections were pitchers -- 11 out of college and one out of high school.
They drafted their first pitcher, Matt Duffy out of Canisius College, with the 115th overall pick in Round 4. The right-hander won't turn heads with his low-90s fastball, but he makes up for his lack of velocity with exceptional command. He walked only 59 batters while striking out 273 in 211 2/3 innings in three years at Canisius.
Following its two compensatory picks, 11 of Boston's final 16 selections were pitchers. Teel's Virginia teammate Connelly Early, a left-hander, was drafted by the Red Sox in Round 5.
College-heavy
Seventeen of the Red Sox' 22 draft picks were college or junior college players. After taking the high-school shortstops in Rounds 2 and 3, Boston didn't take a high school player until it selected another shortstop in Phoenix Call in Round 15. The team's only other high-school selections were outfielder Dylan Schlaegel (Round 17) and right-handed pitcher Robert Orloski in Round 20.