Red Sox Rumors: Team listening to offers for star trio

Some news coming out of the Winter Meetings this afternoon that the Red Sox are listening to offers for Rick Porcello, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr.

This was a bit of a shock to see as these three were integral in this past season’s World Series Success. The report from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first broke the news a short while ago. This is definitely not something I expected to hear today from the Sox camp. Nightengale would say that it appears to be an attempt to free up some space from the hefty salary that the Red Sox have built.

This comes off the heels of the re-signing of Nathan Eovaldi to a 4-year $68 million deal. Porcello and Bogaerts will both be free agents after the 2019 season and are set to get paid $21 million and $11.9 million respectively. Bradley will be a free agent after the 2020 season and is looking at earning $7.9 million this year.

I understand the business aspect of this as the Red Sox have the highest payroll going into the 2019 season and are still interested in making moves. By unloading the expensive deals of Porcello and Bogaerts they would free up not only money but roster spots as well. This’ll also allow them to add and remain under the luxury tax.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic also reported on the rumors of the Red Sox shopping their star trio and pointed out that this would be done in order to beef up the bullpen. We all know the bullpen has been an issue for years but is it worth getting rid of three of our best players?

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I keep going back and forth in my mind on whether or not I like or dislike this idea. On one hand, I absolutely want to retain as much of the unit that just brought us a championship. But I also see the potential of freeing up not only roster spots and money by moving these guys while they’re under contract and have value still. If we don’t pull the trigger we could lose them to free agency and then be without anyways.

If I were in Dombrowski’s shoes I would honestly and earnestly listen to offers for the three. If we can capitalize on them while they all just came off of strong postseason performances that would be best. Anything can happen in 2019 and now is the time to act.

Porcello has been a roller coaster of a player since joining the Sox, having several ups and downs but also winning a CY Young. JBJ had a rocky year at the plate but still walked away with a Golden Glove and ALCS MVP. Bogaerts is a young rising star that could be an infield franchise player for any squad that wants him.

As much as it hurts me to fully say this, we need to move these guys if possible. It’ll be hard to replace Porcello but with Steven Wright in the pen he can be moved to the #5 slot and bump Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez up in the rotation. We can move Andrew Benintendi or Mookie Betts over to CF and then put Steve Pearce in the vacant spot in the outfield. Bogaerts will be the hardest of the three to replace as he is a hell of a shortstop. We could possibly move Eduardo Nunez to short and leave Rafael Devers at third, not great but it’s a solution.

If we do move these three this offseason it’ll be a serious blow to the team as they were big-time players when we needed them and brought great chemistry. But looking to the future we will be losing Porcello and Bogie next year to free agency and JBJ in 2020. We need to act now and get a return on the investments before we lose out altogether