Boston Herald21%
Red Sox draft picks looking to go from midwest club teammates to majors 43%
By Mac Cerullo72%
7/22/2026, 11:41:44 PM
Topics: Boston Red Sox, Mlb Draft
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Representativeness Heuristic, Halo Effect, and Sunk Cost Effect, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 22.5% saturation with 139 hits. Analysis detected 827 faulty-reasoning hits from 618 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 46.8% and a BS Rank of 43% (12,088 of 21,176 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 57.10% of the article peer group.
When the Red Sox drafted University of North Carolina teammates Jake Schaffner and Owen Hull with their top two picks, much was made about the close friends having the chance to take the next step on their baseball journeys together.
But they actually aren’t the only pair of teammates who will be joining the Red Sox together.
Jace Mataczynski and Kaleb LaFavor, two high school standouts who ranked among Boston’s highest-paid draftees, are also longtime club teammates who have been playing together with the Minnesota Blizzard travel program since they were roughly 11 years old.
The pair were among the five draft picks who visited Fenway Park on Wednesday, getting a tour of the ballpark alongside Schaffner, Hull and fellow high school star Martin Shelar.
“It’s really special,” said LaFavor, Boston’s 10th-round pick out of Bishop Heelan High School in Iowa, about playing with Mataczynski.
“He’s my roommate now and we kind of experienced development together through the Blizzard in Minnesota and we kind of grew through that.”
“He’s like one of my best friends,” said Mataczynski, a third-round pick who starred at Hudson High School in Wisconsin.
Though they grew up more than four hours apart, Mataczynski and LaFavor developed a close bond as they emerged as two of the top high school baseball stars in the upper midwest.
LaFavor said they weren’t necessarily the biggest or strongest when they were younger, so having the chance to make it as professionals together is especially gratifying.
“We were always a little under developed when we were younger,” LaFavor said.
“So going through that and seeing us now, it’s pretty special.”
A 6-foot-4 shortstop, Mataczynski led all Wisconsin high schoolers with 13 home runs.
The Auburn commit was also a two-sport standout who averaged 24.5 points per game for his high school basketball team this past winter.
His mother was a former 1,000-point scorer and Gatorade Player of the Year who went on to play Division 1 college ball, but Mataczynski said while he started off 100% focused on basketball, that changed once he reached high school.
“When I was 15 years old I started eating right, really taking care of my body, and starting to develop more and mature more,” Mataczynski said.
“I guess I kind of saw more success in baseball and not really basketball, basketball kind of lagged behind baseball, so those roles kind of flipped.”
Once the draft rolled around, Mataczynski had the opportunity to either honor his commitment to Auburn and potentially earn some lucrative NIL money while playing in the SEC.
The Red Sox made that decision easier by offering a seven-figure bonus, but Mataczynski said he also felt going pro would be best for his baseball development.
“If you go professional baseball you’re developing in some of the best programs in the entire country,” Mataczynski said.
“So that’s where I wanted to put myself these next years of my journey and develop as a player and a person.”
Standing at 6-foot-7, LaFavor is a striking physical presence who Red Sox director of amateur scouting Jake Bruml said resembles Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski at a similar point in his development.
The Iowa commit can’t throw 104 mph like Misiorowski, but his mid-90s fastball does play up given the seven feet of extension the lanky right-hander can create.
LaFavor hopes with time and a lot of work in the weight room he can live up to the comparison.
“It’s big shoes to fill,” LaFavor said.
“But it’s pretty special knowing if I put in the work and get in the right development program like the Red Sox it could happen.”
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100%flagged-word coverageJace Mataczynski
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