Sox's 2023 Draft class brings pop from both sides, reliable pitching

BOSTON -- A Draft that started on Sunday with the Red Sox landing two coveted position players in college catcher Kyle Teel and high school shortstop Nazzan Zanetello ended on Tuesday with Boston snagging high school pitcher Robert Orloski, a righty from Idaho, in the 20th round.

• Draft Central | Draft Tracker | Day 1 analysis | Day 2 analysis | Day 3 analysis

In three days, rookie director of amateur scouting Devin Pearson and his crew felt they were able to stock the shelves in the farm system with a batch of quality players, stacking the deck with 17 college players versus five high school players. They took 12 pitchers and 10 position players. All but one of the pitchers is a college arm.

“Yeah, it was a bit of a way how the board fell, and then also how we had to kind of play around with our money at times,” said Pearson. “But we wanted to have balance in this Draft. I think we achieved it by getting a nice mix of upside athletes and some really stable college pitching and position players.”

After months of preparation, Pearson knows he will have to exude patience before determining the end result of these past three days.

“We feel really good about it,” said Pearson. “Like you guys know, we’ll see in five years, but I think we’re more importantly happy with our process. Everybody played a role in it and we did our due diligence on all these players. We’re really happy with the crop that we got, and we’ll find out here in the next few years [how it went].”

Here are some takeaways.

Anderson brings power potential from both sides
One of the players the Red Sox were most excited about acquiring was their third-round selection, shortstop Antonio Anderson from North Atlanta High School. The 18-year-old could wind up at third base, but the club drafted him for his switch-hitting bat.

“Yeah, I think that's one of the questions, is how much power he's going to grow into,” said Pearson. “I think for us, we have confidence he’s going to grow into power based on how his swing works, but then also his body and his frame and the future strength that’s going to come. So, I would expect him to have above-average power. I was really, really excited to get him.”

Tough Call?
When the Red Sox selected SS/CF Phoenix Call in the 15th round, they did so with the knowledge that it might be tough to talk him out of fulfilling his commitment to UCLA. Boston landed Call with the 448th overall pick, but MLB Pipeline has him ranked at 226 among amateur prospects. In other words, this would be a high-value signing if the club could make it happen. Pearson made the pick knowing the risks.

“Yeah, we’ll kind of see how that one falls,” said Pearson. “I think, as you guys know, a lot of things can happen post-Draft, and having as many options as you can with good athletes to try to sign is what our goal is. Phoenix has a UCLA commitment, so it's not going to be an easy sign by many means, but we'll just kind of see how things play out.

“He's one of the rare types where he has the ability to be a plus center fielder and a plus shortstop. He's one of the best high school defenders I've ever seen.”

Possible sleeper with Eovaldi comp pick
One of the most interesting picks the Sox made was with their fourth-round compensation selection for losing Nathan Eovaldi to the Rangers as a free agent. The pick was shortstop Justin Riemer, who played just 12 games for Wright State this past season due to a torn ACL. How were the Red Sox able to get enough looks at him to know that he was worth taking with pick No. 133 in the Draft?

“A lot of video work,” said Pearson. “I think he only had 40-something plate appearances this year. But we really dove into that video from this year and then past years and had some conviction in who we think he is as a player. [We] also did some Zooms with him and got to really feel comfortable with the makeup. So we think he's got a lot of upside, obviously coming back from an injury, but one we're comfortable with.”

One pick earlier, in their compensatory pick for losing Xander Bogaerts to free agency, the Sox got Georgia Tech shortstop Kristian Campbell, who slashed .376/.484/.549 as a sophomore in 2023.