Chicago White Sox's Kyle Teel Has Rookie of the Year Buzz Following Blockbuster Trade

The Chicago White Sox may have dealt a major blow to their big league rotation when they traded Garrett Crochet to the Boston Red Sox in December, but they picked up some prized young talent in the process.

MLB Pipeline's Jonathan Mayo recently conducted a poll across the league, first gathering executives and scouts' predictions for who would win Rookie of the Year in 2025. One of the 10 players to garner at least one vote for AL Rookie of the Year was catcher Kyle Teel, who the White Sox picked up in the blockbuster Crochet trade.

Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony and Detroit Tigers pitcher Jackson Jobe were pegged as the co-favorites, each earning 19.1% of the vote, while New York Yankees outfielder Jasson Domínguez came in with 17.0%. Baltimore Orioles infielder Coby Mayo, Red Sox second baseman Kristian Campbell and Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson rounded out the top six.

There were four players lumped into the "Also received votes" section, combining for 12.9%. Kansas City Royals first baseman Jac Caglianone, Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz and Texas Rangers pitcher Kumar Rocker were part of that group, as was Teel.

That is quite the high praise for Teel, who has yet to make his MLB debut.

Teel is currently ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the White Sox's farm system. MLB Pipeline has him ranked as the No. 25 prospect in baseball – second-highest among catchers.

After getting drafted in the first round out of the University of Virginia in 2023, Teel rocketed through the Red Sox's farm system. He reached Double-A before the end of his first professional season, then ascended to Triple-A and appeared in the Futures Game in 2024.

Teel is a .301 hitter with an .848 OPS in his minor league career. Across just 138 games, he has already racked up 15 home runs, 29 doubles, 100 RBI and 15 stolen bases, drawing 89 walks compared to 138 strikeouts.

Korey Lee is likely to serve as Chicago's Opening Day catcher, with longtime Los Angeles Angels reserve Matt Thaiss currently in line to back him up. It may not take long for Teel to bump Thaiss off the roster and challenge Lee for the starting job, so the soon-to-be 23-year-old could very well have 100-plus major league games under his belt by the end of 2025 – think Adley Rutschman or Austin Wells.

Of course, either the AL or NL Rookie of the Year race will get mixed up once Japanese ace Roki Sasaki signs with a team later this month. In the meantime, though, Teel has been singled out as a dark horse, fringe contender to bring some much-needed hardware back to the South Side.

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