Red Sox's Shocking Jordan Hicks Trade Suggests Bigger Move is Coming

There's a lot to break down, but Sunday's news qualifies as a shocker if only because it's hard to believe the Boston Red Sox found a taker for Jordan Hicks.

As first reported by ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Red Sox agreed to a trade with the Chicago White Sox that sends Hicks and top pitching prospect David Sandlin to the South Siders in exchange for pitching prospect Gage Ziehl and cash considerations.

Yes, Boston had to attach top pitching prospect David Sandlin to Hicks to ship him to Chicago. And yes, Boston had to eat $8 million of the $24 million Hicks was owed over the next two years to get him off the books. But this has a chance to be a win, because the obvious implication is that another move is coming.

What does Boston do next?

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow speaks with the media at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

First, we have to address the obvious: Hicks was a disaster in Boston, and the return the Red Sox got in the Rafael Devers trade with the San Francisco Giants is quickly plummeting toward net zero. For getting out of the $254.5 million on Devers' deal, the Red Sox essentially only have Triple-A lefty Kyle Harrison still on the books.

But in a vacuum, getting $8 million in tax payroll space back for a pitcher who had an 8.20 ERA and more than a full negative win above replacement in just 21 games in a Red Sox uniform is an exciting prospect -- because it strongly suggests the Red Sox have more lined up.

There are two 40-man roster spots open, and more importantly, even if we don't have exact projections, we now can safely assume that the 2026 Red Sox stand beneath the second luxury tax threshold of $264 million as of Sunday afternoon.

We know the Red Sox need one more infielder. There are several trade candidates that have been widely discussed -- names like Isaac Paredes, Nico Hoerner, Matt Shaw, and Brendan Donovan -- and one free agent worth watching in Eugenio Suárez.

Who Boston winds up with out of that group (or perhaps not even in that group) remains to be seen. But the obvious implication of ditching Hicks was that there's more payroll to be added soon. And if there's not, and this was just a move to get under the tax threshold, Red Sox ownership deserves every bit of the public criticism they'll get.

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