One of the Red Sox's 'Big Three' prospects must go for elite pitching

The Boston Red Sox are hanging tough as the second half gets underway. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently asserted that his club will be a buyer and it's well established that adding pitching is high on his list of priorities.

The Red Sox have an extensive history of developing position prospects and not so much pitching. As Earl Weaver said, "The only thing that matters is what happens on the little hump out in the middle of the field."

That is where it gets thin for Boston. The talent has not surfaced through multiple administrations, but the failures have.

According to MLB Pipeline, Boston has three pitching prospects among its top 10, but none rank in the top 100 in MLB. The Sox's pipeline did show some significant uptick this season with Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, and Brayan Bello. Houck and Crawford could follow the track of Dave Stewart, who suddenly put it together after years of toiling with pedestrian results. Bello has electric stuff that too often gets short-circuited. He'll be solid eventually, but when?

The Red Sox's "Big Three" prospects would attract GMs willing to deal high quality pitching

To get quality talent, squads must give up quality talent. Pitching is at a premium, and teams have to pay. The salary lists have a bountiful supply of pitching salary heavyweights. The risk is apparent from a quick view of the Dodgers' current injured list situation with pitching. Boston is not immune, as Luis Giolito's off-season free-agent adventurism is done for 2024.

Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel are their top three prospects, and one must go. It would help if the Sox backloaded with others to create a package with shiny keys for other GMs or the Baseball Operations folks cannot resist. Boston can either go all in or go second or third-tier on trades. The Sox could also do the unlikely and toss out a real lure in Jarren Duran, Triston Casas, or Ceddanne Rafaela.

Rumors have swirled about the Red Sox potentially dealing with the Tigers and making overtures to the Rangers. That is just the tip of the rumor iceberg, but talent is available, and the Red Sox have the kind of chips and history that will make other folks listen and not hang up.

The farm system's success with positional players has long put the franchise in a bind when it comes to going on the open market or the trade market to fill a need or needs. Now, they'll have to go to the trade market or look for a high-profile salary dump.

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