Red Sox potential trade target: Rockies right-hander Jon Gray

The Boston Red Sox foremost need is pitching and Rockies right-hander Jon Gray may potentially be available. Can the teams come to a mutual agreement?

The trade winds are blowing and that is not in a nautical sense but a baseball one. For Red Sox Nation those very winds contain two players of much notoriety – Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. Both will be free agents once the 2020 season is over and the Red Sox are in a rock and a hard place between losing two players and the specter of payroll and its attendant luxury tax ramifications.

MLB Trade Rumors tossed out a possibility in the Colorado Rockies 28-year-old right-hander Jon Gray being a potential candidate for a trade. Gray is on track to receive $5.6 million in arbitration and JBJ to be gifted $11 million. Since it is always about the money this may immediately kibosh any move since the Rockies are as payroll conscious as Boston.

That, however, will certainly not stop me from plowing forward on a Bradley for Gray proposal. The Rockies outfield is highly suspect offensively and especially defensively so the addition of JBJ would certainly improve the defensive dynamics.

The Red Sox rotation is facing desperate times with Rick Porcello going elsewhere and the questionable health of David Price, Chris Sale, and Nathan Eovaldi. Gray is certainly not going to be Stephen Strasburg but does profile as a decent mid-rotation starter.

Picking through the smorgasbord of traditional and metric statistics nothing exceptionally positive or negative leaps out. Gray throws reasonably hard (96.1), walks a few too many (3.4 BB/9), and relies on his fastball, curve, slider mix. Playing in Colorado would certainly not cause any trauma moving to hitter-friendly Fenway Park.

The Rockies farm system is similar to that of Boston’s which means bleak. The Rockies will be looking – as will Boston – to recharge their system and from a Rockies perspective that would mean replacing one arm with another one or two. Just where is the line in the sand on negotiations?

Chaim Bloom has a reputation as a talent evaluator meaning he sees something where others see nothing. Is this a potential “In Chaim we trust?” moment in Red Sox history? Do you go and shuffle off a prospect or prospects for a possible one-year rental? And just who?

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Digging deep into the thin pitching prospects list, I would assume the Red Sox are not ready to jettison former first-round picks, Jay Groome or Tanner Houck? Would a Thad Ward type and a top 30 position prospect get it done? The trade game of mix and match is really futile, but that is a game for the GM’s or whatever they call themselves today.

One possible insight into value happened in 2019 when the Red Sox acquired Andrew Cashner for two lower-level prospects for what would be a half-season rental. Cashner was the Orioles top starter and the Red Sox certainly had a need and the O’s some leverage. Could the same be applied to the Rockies?

Gray’s potential to solidify the rotation is worth a risk and would be less costly than re-signing Porcello. If a transaction consists of prospects that opens up the option for Bradley being flipped for prospects or an arm with experience. If it is possible for just Bradley the money certainly is favorable for Boston.

If I was to gauge the potential for this trade happening I would lean to the unlikely category, but refrain from placing it in highly unlikely.  Both teams have had a cooperative history as trade partners so this may just open up an opportunity for both.