Red Sox Willing To Deal Young Prospects To Bolster Pitching Staff
After a slow start, the Boston Red Sox all of a sudden appear well-positioned to completely revamp their starting pitching group from the top down.
Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made his first notable addition to the rotation when he added Lucas Giolito on Friday night.
One day later, he shipped out left-hander Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves for middle infielder Vaughn Grissom -- a move that is a notable win in a vacuum but leaves the club's defense as a major concern.
Breslow already has a myriad of trades under his belt and appears to want to continue down that path.
"Breslow said Sox need to be ready to deal young prospects to trade for quality, controllable starting pitching," The Boston Globe's Alex Speier tweeted on Saturday.
There had been reports that a potential Teoscar Hernández signing could lead to the Red Sox dealing one of the younger outfielders on the trade block -- Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu or Ceddanne Rafeala. That still could become the case but another avenue has opened.
With Grissom slotted to become the everyday second baseman with six years of team control remaining, Boston's bevy of middle infield prospects is on the table to be moved.
The top of the group includes Marcelo Mayer (No. 1 Red Sox prospect according to MLB Pipeline), Nick Yorke (No. 6), Mikey Romero (No. 7), Nazzan Zanetello (No. 8), Brainer Bonaci (No. 12), Yoeilin Cespedes (No. 14), David Hamilton (No. 19), Chase Meidroth (No. 20), Eddinson Paulino (No. 21) and Franklin Arias (No. 29).
In simpler terms, the Red Sox already had a very deep group of middle infielders and now have both Trevor Story and Grissom expected to man those positions for the years to come.
The top starters with years of control are Miami Marlins' Jesús Luzardo, Chicago White Sox's Dylan Cease and Seattle Mariners' Logan Gilbert.
The Mariners reportedly already shot down the Red Sox's pursuit of controllable starting pitching.
The simplest path would be to win the bidding war for Jordan Montgomery while retaining a stacked infield group for as long as possible -- those chips can be used down the line, potentially at the trade deadline.
That said, there is no reason why Boston should not aim to explore both the top of the free agent and trade markets, which they are in the process of doing.
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