Red Sox's Johan Oviedo trade with Pirates is already worth it (but not for the reason you think)

The Boston Red Sox made a flurry of trades over the offseason. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow decided that dealing from their surplus of upper-minors level high-end talent was the way to build the roster instead of attacking free agency. That philosophy led to multiple key acquisitions.

Willson Contreras has been the most impactful of the major deals made this offseason, and Sonny Gray has been a key piece of the Sox rotation. The third headline trade the Red Sox made over the winter was quickly cast aside as a loss.

That third deal was the one that sent Jhostnyxon Garcia, aka The Password, to Pittsburgh in a five-player deal. The headlining piece from Pittsburgh was Johan Oviedo. The tall righty seemed to be a perfect fit in Andrew Bailey and Breslow's pitching development lab. 

He had a rough spring training, though, and was demoted to the bullpen to start the season. He made just one outing, which was very rough, and had a significant dip in velocity. That landed him on the injured list. 

Craig Breslow knew what he was doing when asked for this pitcher with Johan Oviedo

Breslow had traded not only a fan favorite prospect in Garcia, but also a high-potential, yet still very young, pitching prospect in Jesus Travieso. Boston received three players in the trade, though, and one has been an underrated star for the Sox so far. 

Tyler Samaniego is a 27-year-old left-handed reliever. At the time of the trade, he had only reached as far as Double-A in the Pirates organization, but had been added to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. It seemed like he was going to be more of a depth arm, but as the offseason progressed, Boston only added one other left-handed reliever, and it became clear Samaniego would likely see time in the majors at some point in 2026. 

Some point came quickly. Samaniego got his call to the majors on April 8 when Justin Slaten hit the 15-day IL. The Alabama native has been lights out since his call-up. Samaniego has yet to allow a run in his first 13 ⅔ innings, spanning 11 outings. He has a 1.024 WHIP and has struck out 11, accumulating 0.5 bWAR, which is the third-highest among all pitchers on the Red Sox as of May 8. 

The lefty has quickly ingrained himself high up the Red Sox reliever trust tree, and will likely spend most of the season in the majors. One high-end reliever may not be worth the price of two of the Sox's top prospects, but Samaniego certainly has pulled what looked like a dud of a trade back closer to equal value for Breslow. 

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