Red Sox Predicted To Bring 6-Foot-3 Slugging Infielder To Boston

It's officially July, which means the Boston Red Sox are beginning the busiest administrative month of the Major League Baseball calendar.

The All-Star Game. The trade deadline. And before either of those, the MLB Draft. Boston holds the 15th overall pick in the first round, which takes place on Jul. 13 from The Battery in Atlanta, Ga.

In December, the Red Sox traded both their 2023 and 2024 first-round picks to the Chicago White Sox in the Garrett Crochet deal. They got back the San Francisco Giants' first-rounder from last year in the Rafael Devers trade (James Tibbs III), but this year has to feel like an opportunity to re-stock the cupboard.

ESPN's Kiley McDaniel projected the Red Sox's first-rounder on Monday, and he sees Boston taking a high school position player for the first time under chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.

In his Monday mock draft, McDaniel predicted that the Red Sox would take Great Oaks H.S. (CA) infielder Gavin Fien, and hinted that there was some smoke behind the potential selection.

"I'm the high guy on Fien in predraft rankings, and the Red Sox are rumored to be the high team on him in real life, so this is a pretty likely outcome. He was a top-10 prospect coming out of the summer before he had a mediocre spring," McDaniel wrote.

"But he still has the same tools and had a strong showing at the draft combine, affirming the upside is still there. This is the part of the draft I referred to as the 'mush' of similar, 45 FV grade college players, and Fien is one of a couple of prep prospects who fit in there."

Fien projects to be a third baseman at the professional level, but one never knows how a teenager might fit into the jigsaw puzzle a few years down the road. But he's got big-time bat speed and a strong arm, and at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, he fits the Austin Riley mold of a potential third base slugger with a cannon.

Will Fien don a Boston cap in a couple weeks in Atlanta? It will be fascinating to find out.