Red Sox get intriguing pitching prospect to round out Jake Diekman trade
Red Sox complete Jake Diekman-Reese McGuire trade by acquiring pitching prospect Taylor Broadway from the White Sox
Immediately after losing yet another game on Tuesday night, the Boston Red Sox announced that they’d acquired minor-league pitcher Taylor Broadway.
The move completes their trade deadline deal with the Chicago White Sox that sent Jake Diekman to the South Side for Reese McGuire. Broadway is the aforementioned ‘player to be named later’ and was eligible for the trade as he was never on the White Sox’ 40-man roster.
Broadway – an absolutely phenomenal baseball name, by the way – was the White Sox’ sixth-round pick in the 2021 draft out of Ole Miss, and he’s already been promoted from High-A to Double-A this summer. His 37 appearances for the Double-A Birmingham Barons, include 18 games finished and a save. The righty has a 4.74 ERA, but he’s racking up the strikeouts, 74 over 49 1/3 innings for a career-best 13.3 K/9 is no joke. He’s also been effective at limiting walks, only 2.6 BB/9.
It feels like the Red Sox always need bullpen help, and the way he’s skyrocketing through the minors, there’s a good chance he’ll be making his debut as early as next summer.
Hopefully, Broadway rounds out a trade that’s paying off for the Sox at the big-league level. Across his first 17 games for Boston, McGuire is hitting .385/.400/.481 with 20 hits, including three doubles and a triple. He’s never been a home-run hitter, with only nine career round-trippers in 194 career games before the trade.
Meanwhile, Diekman’s struggles didn’t stop with the trade. Over nine innings with his new Sox, he’s allowed six runs (five earned) including a pair of home runs. He only allowed five home runs in 38 1/3 innings for Boston. While he’s struck out 15 batters, he’s also issued eight walks.
Most of Chaim Bloom’s transactions have come under fire since he got hired in November 2019, but unloading the remainder of Diekman’s contract to get a club-controlled catcher and a solid pitching prospect feels like a smart move. Instead of paying Diekman $3.5M in 2023 and either a $4M option or a $1M buyout in 2024, he’s got an arbitration-eligible catcher and big strikeout prospect to add to the farm. He’s also struck gold with unlikely pitching prospects in the past. Maybe Broadway will join Whitlock in that category.
