Since the Garrett Crochet trade went down around 48 hours ago, White Sox catching prospects Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero have become mutuals on Instagram.
They're aware of one another, even if whether they have deeply considered their similarities as top-100 catching prospects in the same organization who have both reached Triple-A in their early 20s is left for us to guess.
"I’m excited to meet him, really looking forward to it," Teel said on an introductory Zoom call with reporters.
Previous trade scenarios the White Sox have considered over the past year suggests they would be amenable to flipping one down the road. A more conservative outlook is that Teel and Quero will simply coexist as insurance for the potential failure of one another, since neither possesses typical size or loud physical tools to buttress their strong minor league offensive numbers. It's a compliment to their bats that the soft proposal for a future tandem floated by Chris Getz involved taking advantage of Teel's collegiate outfield experience to keep him in the lineup.
But such is the determination needed to get this far in professional baseball at its most demanding position, that even something meant as a compliment to their hitting skill is received as a warning shot. Embracing the open opportunity a clearly rebuilding White Sox offer is how Teel processed receiving news of the trade while on his way to work out. So when WSCR's Bruce Levine asked Teel which he would pick between a 10-year major league career as a catcher or 15 years elsewhere on the diamond, he had little interest in making concessions.
"Let's be a catcher for 15 years," Teel said. "I'm a catcher. I believe in myself as a catcher. I love catching. That's what I want to do."
Unless you find someone hitting at a league average level at Triple-A for 28 games at the end of their first full professional season as some sort of crisis, Teel has done nothing but rake since high school. But as the 22-year-old stands a slight 6-feet even and doesn't boast plus exit velocities, scouts are more comfortable asserting that he'll hit quite well for a catcher than calling his left-handed bat a lineup anchor. Video doesn't suggest a major overhaul in Teel's swing since his Virginia days, and since he's posted a .404 on-base percentage as a professional, his assessment of "I think I adjusted really well," reads as simply matter of fact.
Teel matched scouting descriptions of his makeup by claiming to be a hail of chatter while at the ballpark, peppering coaches and teammates with questions befitting a defensive role where he has to know how everyone works best. For someone whose prime value comes from how safely he can be projected to catch in the majors, Teel has enjoyed the past 1½ years for the whirlwind of defensive development they have brought. Beyond adjusting based on the batter's movement in the box, he wasn't allowed to call pitches in college. His biggest takeaways from his time in the Red Sox system have been diving into the intricacies that determine what fingers to put down, and refining his one-knee-down stance to improve his framing.
"My receiving metrics exploded at the end of the year and I want to keep that going," Teel said. "Right-knee down stance, that has been my big focus this offseason, making it easier for me to throw runners out more consistently, putting myself in best position possible."
There's a world in which the Red Sox sign Max Fried instead of shopping for starters on the trade market, Teel debuts in 2025 into a backup role for Connor Wong, and slowly matures into a No. 1 catcher for a consistently winning franchise. And he didn't have a reason to expect something else until he received that fateful call on Wednesday. It stunned for a moment, but Teel took whatever heartbreak and confusion it brought into the gym, which he said "cleared my head," and came out on the other side accepting that his day-to-day goals should look pretty similar.
"It’s great to look long-term and the future looks great," Teel said. "At the same time, what can we do in the moment? What can we do today?"
Tommy John surgery in his junior season kept White Sox Rule 5 pick Shane Smith from being drafted out of Wake Forest, so the 24-year-old right-hander was better suited than most to enjoy being the oddest sort of No. 1 overall selection.
"I've been through two other drafts and didn't get my name called in those," Smith said. "To be first in the first round was a special experience for me and my family."
Smith mostly started while mostly shoving in Double-A last season in the Brewers system, before his promotion to Triple-A involved a full-on transition to the bullpen at the end of the year. While he prefers the rhythm of starting and how the innings allow him time to gain a feel for pitches that might elude him out of the gate, Smith speaks like a man who knows he'll have to be ready for anything when he arrives in Glendale.
Getz didn't place any limits on the role Smith will compete for in camp, but indications are the White Sox will have enough starters (barring injury) to wall off the five-man rotation from him. Smith didn't refer to much more than introductory conversations with White Sox personnel, such as fellow former Brewer Walker McKinven, but someone already introduced to the roster realities behind the Rule 5 Draft is well-suited to deduce their place in the hierarchy early.
"I’m going to prepare for a large volume, whatever that looks like, whether it’s two or three innings out of the pen or starting, one inning out of the pen." Smith said. "I’ll prepare for more because it’s a lot easier to taper down then prepare for one or two innings and then have to build up at spring training or in January, February."
Smith has been primarily fastball/curveball throughout his career, with harder secondaries floating in and out of his arsenal at different points. What the White Sox have in mind to lift his profile beyond what the Brewers weren't willing to protect on the 40-man roster remains to be seen, but Smith has been working on a new slider that harnesses his natural tendency to cut his fastball. The process of leveraging what Smith's body was already doing sounds fairly Bannister-coded, even if Brian himself has yet to weigh in.
"Toward the end of the year, I started cutting the heater," Smith said. "It didn’t kill the fastball velocity but at the same time, it helped me get that feeling of almost getting to the side with the baseball for my slider. Before, I tried to think like my curveball, get in front of it to create that movement. Once I realized I could get to the side of the baseball without thinking about it or trying it, once I blended the two between the curveball and getting on the side for the slider, that’s when it picked up a little bit."
