David Price suggests slumping Red Sox could trade stars in drastic fire sale
David Price says that he and his star teammates could get traded if the Boston Red Sox don’t pull out of their early-season slump.
A miserable start to the season hit rock bottom when the Boston Red Sox were swept in a quick two-game series in the Bronx. The current losing streak has dropped them to 6-13, the worst record in the American League and 8.5 games behind a division-leading Tampa Bay Rays team they will visit this weekend. We’re well beyond the point of worrying about a slow start and trending toward a full-blown crisis.
David Price has felt the sense of urgency to turn things around quickly or else the team may face drastic ramifications. The consequences of this early-season failure could go as far as blowing up a championship roster with an epic mid-season fire sale.
According to the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, a dejected Price wondered aloud in front of reporters if he and his fellow star players could find themselves on the trading block this summer.
“If we don’t start playing better, J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, maybe myself, we could get traded,” said Price. “We’re, what, 30th in minor league systems? We’re dead last. We don’t play better, Mookie Betts will be traded, J.D. Martinez will be traded. It will be tough for a while here.”
Now that’s a hot take! The reigning World Series champions throwing in the towel less than a month into the season? We aren’t quite there yet, although it’s interesting that the notion has even crossed Price’s mind. It shows the mentality in the clubhouse of a team that is starting to get desperate. How deep of a hole does Boston need to dig themselves into before Price’s prediction becomes a shocking reality?
Dave Dombrowski has some experience with dismantling a championship roster but this team isn’t the 1998 Florida Marlins. That infamous fire sale was an owner-mandated liquidation of assets that preceded the sale of the team. The Marlins were never expected to contend the year after hoisting the first World Series trophy in franchise history.
The situation is different for a Red Sox team that expected make a run at becoming the first MLB team in nearly two decades to win back-to-back titles. Yet the end result could be the same, only with the fire sale coming at the trade deadline instead of before the season.
It seems unfathomable that a team that won 108 games would return essentially the same roster the following year and still end up as a potential seller at the trade deadline. Except we don’t need to look too far back in franchise history to find a similar comparison. The Red Sox won the 2013 World Series before taking this same first-to-worst nosedive the following season. Boston traded Jon Lester to the Oakland A’s at the deadline rather than risk losing him for nothing when he hit free agency that winter.
The Red Sox will find themselves at the same crossroads this summer if they don’t start living up to their potential.
The Red Sox could be reluctantly persuaded into trading Martinez if they find themselves out of playoff contention in July. Martinez has three years and nearly $62.5 million remaining on his contract but has an opt-out clause he could exercise after this season, essentially making him an impending free agent. If there’s any hesitance by the front office to give him a longer, more lucrative deal when he’s 32 years old, trading him during the season is a scenario they have to explore if they fall out of the playoff hunt.
Price would be a bit harder to move with three years and $96 million remaining on his deal. There simply aren’t many teams that can afford to take on that contract. The lefty has been the best pitcher in an otherwise woeful Red Sox rotation this season and he finally got the postseason monkey off his back with a spectacular World Series performance. Boston would have to swallow some of that money but contending teams may be willing to deal a hefty package for a pitcher of his caliber.
Between trading Martinez and Price, Boston could obtain an impressive bundle of prospects to restock a farm system that, as Price pointed out, is ranked last by Baseball America. They could also shed a significant amount of payroll to lower their luxury tax bill and potentially duck the tax altogether next season. Resetting the tax penalties would create more financial flexibility to lock up their young core and still find room to add quality talent in free agency in 2021.
Trading Betts is a different story. He’s a 26-year old generational talent and the reigning MVP. While the Red Sox could command a king’s ransom for the superstar outfielder, they’ll never get fair value for him. You don’t deal quality for quantity when the quality player has the chance to become one of the best in franchise history. This Red Sox roster may have its flaws but they don’t have enough holes to warrant trading away Betts to plug them.
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It would be difficult to justify how trading Betts makes the Red Sox better unless the player they are getting in return is named Mike Trout (spoiler alert: that’s not happening).
Betts will hit free agency after the 2020 season. There’s some concern amongst the fanbase that the Red Sox will let him slip away so they might as well trade him now when his value is at its peak. Why? This ownership group has proven that it’s willing to pay a premium for elite talent. Betts may seek to raise the bar for free agent position players when he hits the market but the Red Sox should be willing to pay him. Trading away other high-priced players makes it more likely they can afford a mega-deal for Betts, it’s not a reason to throw him into the fire sale.
Unless the relationship between Betts and the Red Sox takes a horrible turn for the worse, the MVP is off the table in trade talks. Betts has never given any indication that he wants out and there’s no reason to believe that will change regardless of how this season goes.
Let’s say, hypothetically, the Red Sox reach a point where it’s inevitable that they must punt on this season. They have enough desirable assets on big money deals that they could simultaneously restock their barren farm system and slash their payroll to escape luxury tax purgatory while still retaining Betts and the rest of their young players.
That would enable them to complete a quick rebuild that puts them back into contention again by 2021, by which point they’ll know where they stand with Betts’ venture into free agency and be better prepared to reshape the roster. Boston isn’t a city willing to endure a lengthy rebuild and this would be the quickest way to turn things around if this season continues to go horribly wrong.
In that scenario, veterans signed to short-term deals could be exposed to the trading block if they aren’t part of the team’s long-term future. This includes their first base platoon of Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce. Neither will return a blue chip prospect but they’ll have value on the trade market, allowing Boston to further reduce their payroll while giving an opportunity in the second half of the season to Sam Travis and Michael Chavis. We could see Rick Porcello fall in that category if he starts to perform better on the mound. At the moment, nobody would want him.
The trade deadline is over three months away so there’s still time to right the ship before the Red Sox seriously consider breaking up this roster. If they are still toiling away at the bottom of the division a month from now, two months from now? They can’t simply stay idle while everything falls apart. They’ll have no choice but to give up on 2019 and look ahead to their future.
Next. Red Sox Prospect Watch. dark
Price may have been premature with his bold prediction but he’s right about one thing. The Red Sox need to start playing better soon – or else.