Red Sox Predicted To Acquire Well-Rounded 6-Foot-3 Third Baseman

It's easy to forget, in the wake of the blockbuster Rafael Devers trade, that the Boston Red Sox still have a season to finish out.

That means the Red Sox will play 87 more regular-season games between now and the end of September. They still hope to make the playoffs as well. But it also means the Major League Baseball Draft is coming in less than a month.

With one superstar gone, the Red Sox will certainly be looking to land a high-impact player with the draft's 15th overall pick this summer. The draft takes place on Jul. 13 in Atlanta.

On Wednesday, ESPN's Kiley McDaniel predicted that the Red Sox would go for a high school position player, selecting Gavin Fien of Great Oak HS in Southern California.

Fien, a 6-foot-3 infielder who most evaluators project as a third baseman long-term, earned a 50 or 55 grade in all five primary tools on the 20-to-80 scale in MLB.com's pre-draft scouting report.

"I'm a big believer in Fien, and he fits around here or in the next half-dozen picks or so," McDaniel wrote. "The Red Sox were also heavy on (Gavin) Kilen out of high school, or I could see them being swayed by (Gage) Wood's outstanding close to the college season.

Kilen is a former 13th-round Red Sox draft pick in 2022, and he excelled at both shortstop and second base during his three college years at Louisville and Tennessee. Meanwhile, Wood just threw a 19-strikeout no-hitter for Arkansas at the College World Series.

If it's Fien the Red Sox choose, though, it will undoubtedly take a couple more seasons to see this pick pay off in a major league debut. The last time the Red Sox chose a high-schooler in round one was 2022, and their pick, Mikey Romero, has only progressed to Double-A thus far.

Still, Fien's upside is immense, and in a post-Devers world, the Red Sox need to collect as many potential impact bats as possible in hopes that someday, one will emerge from the farm system.