Red Sox Urged to Fill ‘Glaring Need,’ Flip Top Prospects in Blockbuster Trade
The Boston Red Sox front office has been encouraged to do more to bolster the team’s roster by fans and their own stars alike.
And with starting pitching one of the outstanding concerns for the team — particularly after Chris Sale was traded to the Atlanta Braves — the Red Sox might be a landing spot for free agents Jordan Montgomery or Blake Snell. Or, as Zachary Rotman projected for FanSided, it could mean landing Chicago White Sox ace Dylan Cease in a blockbuster trade.
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“Boston entered the offseason with a glaring need to upgrade their rotation,” Rotman pointed out. “If the Red Sox are unwilling to splurge on pitchers like Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery, the trade market is something they should strongly consider. If this Red Sox team acquires Cease, a legitimate ace, they can at the very least be in the race for an AL Wild Card spot.”
Dylan Cease Upgrades the Boston Red Sox Rotation
Without a significant addition before the offseason’s imminent conclusion, the Red Sox stand to start Opening Day with a rotation led by Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito, Nick Pivetta and Kutter Crawford. While there’s upside in Bello and Crawford, two starters with only five big-league seasons between them, Giolito and Pivetta are well-known commodities whose ceilings are significantly lower than Cease’s.
Cease is a 28-year-old with nasty stuff — on display last season in “swords,” or swings and whiffs that take batters well outside of their routine swings — who was a runner-up in the Cy Young Award chase in 2022. His numbers regressed last season but he still netted the eighth-most strikeouts in MLB at 214.
Cease has also been front and center in trade talks, with the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees reaching out to assess the White Sox’s asking price.
Rotman suggested the Red Sox have the trade capital to get a deal done, even if they want to keep their most promising youngsters.
“Boston happens to have a slew of prospects they can trade,” he wrote. “They’ve shown no willingness to move guys like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel (and for good reason), but the Red Sox do have four prospects on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 list, as well as other young players like Jarren Duran who the White Sox could be interested in.”
