Red Sox first-round pick Kyle Teel's diehard Yankees fandom should be fun

If you're a Yankees fan who's ever had to stare at that weird picture of a college-aged Aaron Judge wearing Red Sox gear, you may be entitled to financial compensation.

That compensation might just come in the form of Boston's 2023 first-round steal Kyle Teel, a catcher out of UVA who should've been selected ahead of the Red Sox 14th overall pick. Chaim Bloom seems like a pretty good drafter, but it's also much easier when the rest of the league fumbles the bag twice and lets Marcelo Mayer and Teel trickle down to you. "Hmm. Should we pick this talented guy everybody else ignored for some reason? Yes!" Not so tough.

The latest Sox bounty is Teel, the athletic left-handed hitting catcher from the University of Virginia who's matured behind the plate in recent years, pairing solid receiving skills with his line drive bat. He's got a captain's tenacity, too. Excellent pick, and someone who should be very, very annoying for decades to come.

But oh yeah, wait, he also grew up a Yankee fan in Mahwah, NJ, posing in a pinstriped jersey on River Ave in a still-up-there Instagram post. Shouldn't be a problem, though.

Yankees fan catcher Kyle Teel could be mole inside Red Sox clubhouse

Cue incoming cope from Red Sox fans: "Uhhh, did you not read the tweet?! He says he bleeds red now!! Clown!" Yeah, I'd, uh, probably say that, too, if Boston had just drafted me. It's a new invention called "lying." His heart's not in it. Kudos to him for trying.

Meanwhile, the Yankees selected a current shortstop/potential eventual third baseman in George Lombard Jr., the son of former top Braves pick/current Tigers bench coach George Lombard. Seeing Lombard Jr. go at the end of the first round was nearly as shocking as watching Teel come off the board midway through the evening. The Yankees were so heavily connected to Clemson commit/local kid Sammy Stafura that it seems genuinely hard to believe they opted for a different middle infield option.

Stafura, a Walter Panas High School grad, and Teel could've been a fun childhood fandom match on both sides of the rivalry for years to come. Alas, only the Red Sox delivered, adding a gym rat (and a regular rat) to their clubhouse in the process.