As expected, the Red Sox’s first big move of the offseason came during baseball’s Winter Meetings. It wasn’t a free agent signing, either — but a trade. And it seemingly came out of left field.
More like right field, actually…
Boston is parting ways with fan-favorite right fielder Alex Verdugo in a rare trade with the rival New York Yankees. The fact that Verdugo is being traded to the Yankees isn’t a shock given their rumored interest in him over the last two offseasons.
But the return coming back to the Red Sox is a little surprising — it isn’t Gleyber Torres, the power hitting infielder who Boston was reportedly interested in to fill its need for an everyday second baseman in 2024 and beyond.
Instead, the Red Sox are receiving three relief pitchers: Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice. If you haven’t heard of any of them, you’re not alone. Between the three of them, only one of them — Weissert — has appeared in the majors.
It isn’t a surprise that Verdugo was traded for pitching given that’s been the Red Sox’s clear-cut need. Yet it is a little surprising that the team did not bring back any established pitchers while casting off a player in Verdugo who is at best a borderline All-Star and at worst a proven everyday player.
That leads me to believe they have something else of significance in the works to address their rotation needs. Whether that will be Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jordan Montgomery, Blake Snell or a stable of other established starters remains to be seen…
I would be surprised if Craig Breslow’s first major move of his Red Sox front office tenure came with the sole intent of being a part-out to rebuild the farm system. You’d have to think the team must feel good about being able to add significant pitching reinforcements if they just sold off Verdugo for a bunch of unproven arms.
Fitts was the Yankees’ No. 12 ranked prospect by MLB.com and their fourth-highest-ranked pitching prospect. New York’s former sixth-round pick in 2021 earned the Eastern League Pitcher of the Year Award last season with the Double-A Somerset Patriots (any chance he can also play quarterback?). The 23-year-old right-hander pitched in the College World Series while at Auburn. He’s also an alumnus of the Cape Cod Baseball League, if you’re into that sort of thing…
Weissert, 28, has parts of two big league seasons under his belt, posting a 3-0 record with a career 4.60 ERA in 31 1/3 innings across 29 games. The right-hander was an 18th-round draft pick by New York in 2016 and… well, his first big league appearance was memorable for all the wrong reasons.
From his bio on Wikipedia: “On August 25, 2022, the Yankees promoted Weissert to the major leagues. In his major league debut that night, he hit the first batter with his first pitch, committed a balk, hit a batter with the second pitch, and allowed two walks before being removed from the game.”
Now if *that* doesn’t sound like your quintessential Red Sox pitcher of the 2020s…
As for Judice, he’s a 22-year-old right-hander drafted in the eighth round by the Yankees this year. He spent four years in college — pitching primarily out of the bullpen — at the University of Louisiana Monroe. And yes, he too played in the Cape League…
Who knows if any of these guys will pan out? None come with much of a pedigree, and more importantly, none address the immediate starting pitching needs of the team — which is what you’d have hoped any trade of Verdugo would have done.
The fact that the Sox could only pry one of the Yankees’ top 30 prospects in return for Verdugo says a lot about his league-wide value. It turns out teams weren’t exactly beating down the door to acquire Verdugo’s services.
Alas, the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts trade is now gone, and the only remaining player from the trade is platoon-level catcher Connor Wong. I’m starting to think the Red Sox may not have won that trade…
We had a few good (but not great) years with Verdugo here in Boston. Despite the drama of last season, he was a fun player to watch and a fun one to cover. More relevantly, he was a decent bat and a decent player in the field — one that the team now needs to replace. I’d be comfortable re-signing Adam Duvall and slotting him into Verdugo’s post in right.
Perhaps this move indicates the Red Sox have plans to acquire someone else to replace Verdugo… maybe a certain outfielder on the San Diego Padres who’s rumored to be available? Hey, Juan Soto would certainly be an upgrade over Verdugo…
But for now, we finally have something of substance to talk about this offseason. It’s far from a glamorous trade, and I certainly don’t expect it to be the last significant move the team make this offseason.
Breslow and the Red Sox are now officially on the clock…