After their series win over the Rays, the Boston Red Sox made a strange trade to add depth to the bullpen.
The Red Sox have acquired righty reliever Jorge Alcala from the Minnesota Twins, reported by Robert Murray of FanSided. Boston sent Andy Lugo, a 21-year-old third base prospect, to Minnesota in exchange. Lugo slashed .265/.327/.430 over 44 games with High-A Greenville this season, and went viral for an insane bat flip earlier this year.
The Red Sox designated Brian Van Belle for assignment to make room for Alcala on the 40-man roster. Van Belle, 28, was selected on June 9 but never appeared in a game. He posted a 2.29 ERA with 41 strikeouts and seven walks over 51 innings for the WooSox this season.
Alcala has pitched to a rough 8.88 ERA this year, with 28 strikeouts and 15 walks over 24.1 innings. He's had more success in previous seasons, though, and clocked a 3.24 ERA over 58.1 frames last year. His fastball averages 96.9 miles per hour and has a 79th percentile hard hit rate, but he hasn't been able to figure it out with Minnesota.
Red Sox trade for struggling reliever Jorge Alcala from Twins
Jorge Alcala has a 7.77 ERA in 41 appearances since August 1 of last season, allowing 38 earned runs in 44 innings.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) June 11, 2025
Hopefully, Alcala just needs a change of scenery, because his performance hasn't sat well with Twins fans since last season. He's allowed 38 runs in 44 innings pitched since last August, and his command has been minimal. He has a sixth percentile walk rate this season.
Acala let up five runs on five hits in 1.2 innings on June 10, and that seemed to be the last straw for many Twins fans. In Benjamin Jones' June 10 post on Twinkie Town, he wrote: "It’s not just that [Acala has] been bad, it’s that he can’t even manage low-leverage innings." On SI's Will Ragatz wrote the day before the trade that "It's getting very difficult to justify sending Alcala back out to the mound." Yikes.
This move seems questionable for the Red Sox's pitching staff at the moment. Boston has struggled to get long outings from its starters (they have a pitiful 6.81 first-inning ERA), which has forced the bullpen to pitch 266.1 innings this year, the fifth most in the league. Alcala may be a hard guy to rally around while the offense is trying to mount a comeback.
Hopefully, the Red Sox can bring out the glimmers of hope on Acala's stat sheet. He throws hard and batters average only .143 against his curveball this year. But this seems like a risky move for a team that's underperformed all season and often loses close games.