BOSTON -- When a team trots its top Draft selections onto the field for obligatory meet and greets, as the Red Sox did at Fenway Park last week, the ninth- and 10th-round selections usually aren’t included. But the 2026 Draft was a different one for the Red Sox. The way the board fell, Red Sox director of amateur scouting Jake Bruml and his staff decided to go with college players they could sign for well below slot value early on. This was due to their confidence of being able to make a splash on Day 2 with two high school players they were determined to sign, and knowing they would need to go well over slot to do so. Meet ninth-round selection Martin Shelar, a right-handed-hitting high school masher who was known to wear out parking lots in Georgia this past season. And say hello to 10th-rounder Kaleb LaFavor, a 6-foot-7, 195-pound righty, who has a similar frame to a young pitcher from the Brewers you’ve probably watched a time or two. |
“With Kaleb, I guess if we're trying to dream big here … in a Jacob Misiorowski mold,” Bruml said. “He fits the bill. He’s someone our area scout and special acquisition specialist did a great job of identifying and having a great process with. “He’s as projectable as they come with that 6-foot-7 body going to add more to the frame. He has crazy release traits, and hopefully, once he gets into our development system, he's going to take off when he gets those added velo gains that we're expecting to come.” The beauty of LaFavor drawing Miz comparisons is that he welcomes them. Asked which pitchers he admires, LaFavor didn’t hesitate. “I’d say kind of just taller pitchers like Misiorowski. … He is one that I've kind of gotten compared to a lot. I’ll try to follow a little bit after him,” LaFavor said. Do those comparisons add pressure? LaFavor pondered it for a half-second and basically said, “Nah.”
Well, this is what he actually said: “I like it. I think I can live up to that. I just need to put my head down and work in the weight room.” While Misiorowski recently threw a 105.5 mph pitch, the hardest by a starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), LaFavor estimates his fastest pitch so far was 96 mph. |
Even at 18 years old, he knows he will need more than projectable heat as he starts his career as a professional. “I throw a sweeper and a changeup, and then I'm trying to add a cutter or a gyro shape pitch,” LaFavor said. “But we'll see what they want me to add. First, they want me to put on a lot of weight, just to fill up my frame and everything, get more power output into the ground, everything like that.” LaFavor had a scholarship to Iowa, but the Red Sox persuaded him to go pro with a signing bonus of $847,500, well above his slot value of $194,000. The process for Shelar was similar, knowing he had a scholarship to college powerhouse Mississippi State in his back pocket. The fact he wound up with the Red Sox for $1.5 million, a new Draft record for a ninth-round pick, and well past the $250,400 slot value, was kind of perfect. Allow Shelar to explain. |
“My favorite player is Ted Williams,” Shelar said. No offense to the late and legendary Teddy Ballgame, who died in 2002, but you don’t hear many teenagers say that these days. What led to such love for the Splendid Splinter, baseball’s last .400 hitter? “I read the ‘Science of Hitting’ growing up,” Shelar said. “It was the first-ever baseball book I read. I had heard about the ‘Science of Hitting’ and opened it up, and it was probably the best book I've ever read because it made me look at hitting development a little differently and try to develop that way.” For decades, the book authored by Williams (with an assist from John Underwood) has been considered a bible for aspiring hitters. In fact, Wade Boggs -- under orders from his father -- read it cover to cover during his senior year of high school. The Hall of Famer went on to win five batting titles for Boston. To hear it mentioned as a resource generation after generation proves how revolutionary Williams was. When did Shelar make this purchase? “Probably when I was about 10. It was my parents who kind of recommended it, but I also just walked into a half-price bookstore and it was the first thing I saw, and it kind of fit well,” Shelar said. “I opened it up, and it's been the best book I've ever read. It's kind of set the course of my career.” Does he still browse it? Of course. “It’s beat up, man. I mean, annotations and everything,” said Shelar. “But that’s what you’ve got to do. And sometimes, for me, especially in times where stuff gets complicated, I’ve just got to turn back to what kind of the foundation I set as a 10-year-old, kind of going back to what works.” |
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ANOTHER MEMORABLE MUELLER MOMENT |
The Red Sox honored Bill Mueller for his walk-off two-run homer off Yankees legendary closer Mariano Rivera to end the most memorable regular-season game of the historic 2004 season. But the switch-hitter accomplished a feat during the 2003 season that is still his alone. Wednesday marked the 23rd anniversary of Mueller hitting grand slams from both sides of the plate in Texas as part of a three-homer, nine-RBI night. I remember covering that game, and then-general manager Theo Epstein was having a conference call with us after trading for reliever Scott Williamson. He memorably shouted, “Go, go, go” from his Fenway Park office as Mueller’s second slam left the park in the top of the eighth inning in a 14-7 win for Boston. At that moment, Mueller didn’t realize the magnitude of what he had just done. A couple of decades later, he did. “I was just wanting to have a good at-bat at the time, trying to help the team,” Mueller said. “So, I had no clue [the history that went with it]. It’s really amazing.” |
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