Red Sox should check in on Pirates pitcher Joe Musgrove

The Red Sox should discuss pitcher Joe Musgrove with the Pirates

The first big trade of the season has finally occurred, with the Pittsburgh Pirates trading one of their most well-known players in Josh Bell to the Nationals for two pitchers. ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news earlier this afternoon. Mark Feinsand reported that the two pitchers who are both in Washington’s top-ten prospects list are going back to Pittsburgh in Eddy Yean (No. 6 ranked prospect) and Wil Crowe (No. 3 ranked prospect). Yean is just 19-years old whereas Crowe is 26 and made his major league debut this past season. With the Pirates latest trade potentially indicating a fire-sale, the Boston Red Sox should consider checking in on the oft-mentioned trade candidate in right-handed pitcher Joe Musgrove.

Bell is coming off a down season but is not far removed from a 2019 campaign that saw him launch 37 home runs while producing a .277/.367/.569 slash line. The trade might be considered a buy-low acquisition after Bell regressed heavily in 2020, but Pittsburgh was able to come out of the transaction with some solid pitching additions. Now that the first domino has fallen for a Pittsburgh organization that hit rock bottom last season, one would speculate that the team could be planning on cutting more ties with current players on its roster.

Musgrove is another name who might be a potential trade candidate for a team that appears to be in rebuild mode. The Red Sox have been making several under-the-radar moves this offseason, with the latest coming yesterday in signing right-handed swing-man Matt Andriese per a club announcement. Perhaps they could soon up the ante and make a larger move in due time.

The cost to acquire Musgrove is uncertain, but at the 2020 trade deadline, the righty was nearly traded to the Blue Jays only for the transaction fell apart at the last minute. Whether the asking price was too high for the Blue Jays to go through with the deal or they liked what they saw in their ultimate decisions to acquire Robbie Ray and Ross Stripling is unknown. Either way, Musgrove is still a Pirate and the Red Sox should at least kick the tires on preliminary discussions.

Considering the Pirates timeline would likely push them back a few years from fielding a team worthy of winning, one would imagine that they would likely target much younger prospects in any given transaction.

Musgrove is not a front-line type of pitcher but did have a solid year in 2020 pitching to the tune of a 3.86 ERA with 55 strikeouts and a 1.235 WHIP.

Acquiring even more depth for the starting five is exactly what Boston is looking to do this offseason, and they could likely get a deal done without trading any talent that is close to being MLB-ready.

Boston has not been linked – at least officially – to Musgrove but there has been some speculation that he could be a fit for the pitching-deprived team. Multiple teams have discussed the righty in the past, as we saw with Toronto, but obviously, a deal has yet to come to fruition. Now is the time to get aggressive for the right-hander’s service considering Pittsburgh just traded arguably the face of their franchise.