Many professional baseball players take the All-Star break as time to relax, but Boston Red Sox prospect Kyle Teel had a different mindset.
Boston’s top three prospects in Teel, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony did not have the entire All-Star break to themselves due to the Futures Game, but they did have a few days off.
The game was this past Saturday, leaving the rest of the week for the prospects to do whatever they wanted. Mayer opted to take a break from swinging, but Teel decided he didn’t want a break from baseball.
“There’s guys who are just baseball rats,” Mayer told Baseball America. “For example, Kyle Teel, funny story. We were in Hartford and most of us are thinking, ‘Oh, All-Star break, we’re going home, like we’re going to enjoy the four days off. Be with our family, be with our friends, chill, not think about baseball.’ And Teel comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Dude, do you think they’d let me go to the facility to hit for three days?’ And I’m like, ‘Bro, that’s the last thing I was thinking about right now.'”
While Mayer respected the catcher’s approach to the break, the shortstop himself doesn’t want to tire himself out from playing.
Double-A plays a little less games than MLB, but they are still playing 138 games a season. With so many games, the 21-year-old likes his mind to go away from the sport when he isn’t at the field.
“When I’m not (at the field), I don’t want to think about baseball because then I feel like I’m just going to get tired and then when I’m at the baseball field I’m going to be thinking of other things,” Mayer said.
Teel, who is ranked as the No. 3 Red Sox prospect by MLB Pipeline, put on a stellar performance at the Futures Game, being the only player to record multiple hits with two doubles.
