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In this article I will give the facts about who is no longer an official member of the Boston Red Sox as well as the rumors I have heard floating around about potential off-season trade candidates.
Baseball, like gambling, is based on Risk vs Reward! Who do you keep? Who do you trade? Is it worth it to go over the MLB luxury tax and if so, by how much? How much are baseball players really worth as the average salaries seem to be going down the past few years as teams rely more on analytics and team profits. For people outside of baseball, they might rely on things like the 888sport betting app to assess those risks, but for those IN baseball, they need to rely on their internal Baseball Operations department to determine these risks and rewards.
Who’s Already Gone
As of this writing, the Red Sox have traded C Sandy Leon to the Indians with the strong season Christian Vasquez had last season in lieu of a more cost efficient backup catcher.
Also gone is free agent SP Rick Porcello who hasn’t had many back to back good seasons in his career to date, but was a big contributor to their last World Series win against the Dodgers a few years ago.
It also looks like World Series MVP 1B Steven Pearce has “unofficially” retired after electing free agency from the Red Sox.
The Rumors I’ve Heard
Here is a listing of the names I’ve heard to be rumored to be on the trading block for one reason or another …
On the top of this list is former MVP, 4-time All Star and 3-time Gold Glove winning RF Mookie Betts who has only one year remaining on his current contract and is a Scott Boras client! The latter might be the nail in the coffin that prevents Betts from playing his whole career in a Red Sox uniform like former Boras client C Jason Varitek. Rumor has it, the Betts/Boras team have already rejected an offer of 8 years and $200M per Joel Sherman of the NY Post who also wrote, “Two other sources said the Red Sox have made several attempts at a long-term deal with Betts, including this past offseason, with the Betts camp not even making a counter-proposal.” In my opinion, no MLB player deserves the type of money most of the best players are making these days, but with that being said, a 5-tool player like Betts (and Trout) does deserve to be one of the highest paid players in the game given the rarity of 5-tool players in baseball. My opinion: find a way to keep him long term because players like this don’t grow on trees, you know!
Also in the rumor mill is SP David Price, one of the heroes of the 2018 World Series Red Sox. Price is scheduled to receive $32M per year for the next three seasons and in my opinion, he just simply isn’t that good anymore at age 34. He has not been able to stay healthy during his Red Sox tenure for one reason or another and has had his share of controversy (going on the “formerly called” DL for what seemed to be Fortnite related issues, his bickering with Red Sox analyst and MLB Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley to name a few). My opinion: Price is NOT worth $32M a year and they should get what they can for him before he loses more value in a trade!
The third most talked about trade rumor this offseason has been Gold Glove winning CF (one of the best defensive outfielders I have ever seen: range, arm strength, etc.) Jackie Bradley Jr (aka JBJ) – by the way, he is also a Scott Boras client. JBJ is owed $11M for 2020 which is also the last year of his current contract and without him the outfield defense of the 2020 Red Sox will NOT be as good as it is with JBJ, but they could get better offensively. JBJ only hit .225 with
21 HRs and only 62 RBI and for a player who covers as much ground in the OF as he does it seems silly that he only stole 8 bases in 2019, too. Granted, trading JBJ would likely move Betts (if he remains on the team) to CF, but might move Andrew Benintendi to RF at Fenway Park with JD going to LF. You wouldn’t lose much in CF or RF in that scenario, but you will in LF (sorry JD). My opinion: although this would hurt you in the OF you need a bat that can hit more consistently and for a higher average with more production than 62 RBIs. This is a shame because he is known to be a nice guy and you would hate to lose his glove, but defense and 20+ HRs alone is not worth $11M in my opinion.
Your Thoughts???
Feel free to reply in the comments section to let us know if you agree or disagree with my opinions or to add any trade scenarios you’d like to see happen!
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