Red Sox will trade part of young core
The Boston Red Sox have one of the best young cores in baseball. There will come a time where that strength is broken up to better the team as a whole.
Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr; all of Boston has come to know their names. They have risen from prospects to superstars in the blink of an eye. Every time Betts hits a leadoff home run and flashes a smile, it turns fully-grown adults back into excited children cheering on their baseball heroes. Boston hasn’t had a young group of players like this in a long time.
Then there are the still upcoming players forming the latter half of the new core. Blake Swihart, who is sidelined due to injury, has already been a good player but has yet to show his full ability. Andrew Benintendi, who was just recently called up, is looking to shine and become the final piece of the Red Sox elite outfield. Then finally, there is future superstar, Yoan Moncada. The young infielder from Cuba will join his Portland teammate, Benintendi, in the majors sooner rather than later.
The point is that the Red Sox are bursting at the seams with young, homegrown talent. The only team in baseball that could currently rival them in that regard is the Chicago Cubs. An eventual lineup that consists of Betts, Bogaerts, Bradley, Swihart, Benintendi, and Moncada is a lineup that would grow to be feared by pitchers for years to come. Not only that, but they would also give the Red Sox one of baseball’s most elite defenses.
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This is the type of core that every fan base dreams about. Ownerships drool over the idea of it. An entire group of cost-controlled, long-term players that are all becoming stars together does not come along every day after all. The problem is that, even with a lineup filled with these young stars, even with an outfield that gobbles up fly balls like they were born to do so, the Red Sox will still not be a complete team.
Boston has all the offensive talent that it needs to compete for the next several years. Even without the great David Ortiz leading the way after this season, the Red Sox are poised to continue to have an elite offense. The problem is, of course, what it has been for several years now. The team needs better starting pitching.
The current rotation consists on David Price, Steven Wright, Rick Porcello, Drew Pomeranz, and Eduardo Rodriguez. When all the pitchers on that staff are performing to their abilities, it is not at all a bad rotation. There is still room for improvement however.
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Wright has, for the most part, pitched brilliantly this season. He had the best ERA in the American League for a good amount of the first half. The issue is that it is not unreasonable to expect that he has somewhat performed above his normal ability so far this season. In his total time in the majors, Wright holds an ERA of 3.53. That is not bad at all, but it is still nowhere near the level he performed at in the first half of 2016 when his ERA hovered around the low 2’s. Since the All-Star break, a bit of regression has started to kick in and his ERA now sits at 3.20 on the season.
Not only has Wright had recent issues, but Pomeranz has struggled mightily since joining the Red Sox after the break. Since coming to Boston he has a 6.20 ERA. He has shown signs of the All-Star pitcher the Sox traded for, but he still needs to improve greatly if he wants to help the team. All of this is just to prove the point that the Red Sox still do not have as reliable of a rotation as they need.
That is where a trade comes in. It has been no secret that Dave Dombrowski wants to bring a young ace to Boston. Back in June, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reported that the team had called teams, asking about elite pitchers such as Jose Fernandez and Gerrit Cole. Then at the trade deadline, Dombrowski was very open about the fact that he had talked to the White Sox, seeing what it would take to pry Chris Sale away from them. He has checked in on young, star pitchers time and time again since coming here, and with his trading reputation it is really only a matter of time before he pulls the trigger on one.
It could be this offseason, or at next year’s trade deadline. It could be even further away than that, but at some point, that blockbuster trade for the type of power arm that Dombrowski loves so much will happen. When it does happen, it is going to cost the Red Sox an arm and a leg. That almost definitely means part of the new core is going to have to be moved. And as sad as it may be to see some of our young talent go, it will be the right decision.
The fact that the likes of Betts, Bogaerts, and so on are so good is the exact reason why the team can afford to move one of them. The Red Sox offense is the team’s greatest strength. If they get rid of one piece of it, the rest will survive. Even if someone like Bogaerts was moved (which I am not suggesting) players like Betts and Bradley would still be here to carry the team.
Now, there are of course members of the future core less likely to be traded than others. Betts and Bogaerts are about as untouchable as players come. Moncada is also close to untouchable. Players like Bradley, Benintendi, and Swihart however, could probably be moved for the right return.
These are the names that other teams are going to want for their top talent. When Dombrowski called the Marlins on Fernandez, they were far more interested in Boston’s young major league talent than they were in the team’s prospects. When trading away their best pitchers, teams want talent that they can add to their major league roster immediately, as well as top prospects.
Imagine a Red Sox rotation that consisted of Jose Fernandez, Price, Porcello, Wright, and a now healthy Rodriguez. It would give Boston the chance to become the most dominant team in the division by far, even if they lost players like Bradley and Benintendi in the process.
It all comes down to how you want your team to be formed. Do you want a team with an amazing offense and good, if sometimes unreliable, pitching? Or do you want a team with both a very good offense and very good pitching?
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Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Andrew Benintendi, Yoan Moncada, Blake Swihart, and possibly others have the potential to form the greatest homegrown core the Red Sox have seen in decades. With that being said, with such an excessive amount of talent, it only makes sense that the team will eventually trade from it to bring in the front-line ace we have all been dreaming about.
Sources: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/2016/06/silverman_names_for_red_sox_to_consider_to_boost_pitching_staff
http://www.baseball-reference.com/