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Red Sox Rumors: Swapping bad contacts key to trading David Price

By Sean Penney

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 04: David Price #10 of the Boston Red Sox looks at the ball from the mound during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on August 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 04: David Price #10 of the Boston Red Sox looks at the ball from the mound during the third inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on August 04, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ONTARIO – JULY 2: David Price #10 of the Boston Red Sox pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning during a MLB game at the Rogers Centre on July 2, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO – JULY 2: David Price #10 of the Boston Red Sox pitches against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning during a MLB game at the Rogers Centre on July 2, 2019 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images) /

Other potential suitors

The Los Angeles Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and Minnesota Twins are all mentioned in Feinsand’s report as teams that could be interested in Price. Unfortunately, none of them have a bad contract that would be an obvious fit for a trade.

It’s too bad that the Angels rushed to unload the final year of Zack Cozart‘s contract. It cost them their 2019 first-round draft pick to shed the $12.6 million remaining on his deal. Cozart was awful last year, producing a horrific -0.8 WAR. He had no trade value but if the Red Sox were content to salary dump Price for nothing, they could have traded him for Cozart to save nearly $20 million next year without any financial commitment beyond 2020.

The Angels could still jump into trade discussions for Price. They need a top of the rotation arm and are clearly all in after splurging on Anthony Rendon.

Milwaukee is at an interesting crossroads. They’ve been a playoff team in recent years built around an MVP-caliber star. Instead of adding to that core, they lost Yasmani Grandal and Mike Moustakas to free agency. Now they are rumored to be shopping lights-out closer Josh Hader. The Brewers appear to be trending in the wrong direction to consider them a candidate to trade for Price.

Minnesota has a clear path to repeating as division champions with the Cleveland Indians in decline but they could use a rotation upgrade to fend off the rising White Sox. The Twins aren’t big spenders though, so if they don’t have a bad contract to dump then they would push the Red Sox to eat a significant chunk of Price’s salary to accommodate a trade.

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More suitors could emerge depending on how the rest of free agency pans out. There are enough teams showing interest to suggest trading Price is a realistic option to allow the Red Sox to shed payroll. If they can do so while acquiring a useful player rather than carrying dead salary on their payroll, that would be the ideal path.

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