Last night, The Boston Red Sox acquired Tyler O’Neill from the St. Louis Cardinals and didn’t give up any of their top 25 prospects. With that trade out of the way, they will indeed shift their focus to the Starting Pitching need; nothing will seemingly happen until Yoshinobu Yamamoto signs, which the Red Sox are heavily in pursuit of, and rightfully so; they also have been rumored to want Jordan Montgomery as well. If Yamamoto signs elsewhere and they sign Montgomery, they will most likely still be looking for an ace, so why not shift the focus to the Milwaukee Brewers and Corbin Burnes? Burnes will be heavily sought after by the teams that miss out on Yamamoto and pitchers like Logan Gilbert, Dylan Cease, Shane Bieber, and Tyler Glasnow. But why should Burnes be the guy? Well, because you can address two needs with the Brewers, you could also acquire Willy Adames, and he can slide into second base or shortstop for you, and you could put Trevor Story at second in that situation. So, who would you have to give up in this situation? I saw someone on Twitter mention giving up Miguel Bleis, who I rank as the Red Sox’s sixth prospect; Wikelman Gonzalez, who I ranked seventh; Mikey Romero, who I rank ninth; and John Schreiber. If that trade is available, I’d absolutely pull the trigger; you get an ace and give up an outfielder whom the Red Sox currently have a log jam at, Gonzalez, who you’d be acquiring an ace, and a shortstop who is blocked all around. Now, if this trade could come to fruition, it would need to be that the Red Sox is extending Burnes; let’s take a look at the numbers all six players put up in 2023.
Proposed Trade By The Numbers
Corbin Burnes
Burnes in 2023 went 10-8 and made 32 starts and recorded 200 strikeouts in 193.2 innings. He won the Cy Young in 2021 when he made 28 starts going 11-5 with a 2.43 ERA and 234 strikeouts in 167 innings. He has finished in the top ten of Cy Young voting the last four seasons. For his career he is 45-27 in 167 games with a 3.26 ERA, a 3.11 FIP, a 1.05 WHIP, a 1.0 HR/9, a 2.6 BB/9, and an 11.0 K/9.
Willy Adames
Adames played in 149 games in 2023 and hit .217 with 24 home runs and 80 RBI and had a 95 OPS+. Defensively in 2023 he played 147 games as shortstop and posted a .973 fielding percentage. For his career he has a slash line of .247/.320/.439 with a .759 OPS; he has 139 doubles, five triples, 118 home runs, 360 RBI, 374 runs scored, 30 stolen bases, and 274 walks. Defensively in his career at shortstop he has posted a .968 fielding percentage and in ten games at second base back in 2018 he had a .981 fielding percentage.
Miguel Bleis
Bleis in 2023 played at Single-A Salem and he slashed .230/.282/.325 with a .607 OPS; he had three doubles, three triples, one home run, 16 RBI, 18 runs scored, 11 stolen bases, and ten walks. His season was cut short due to injury.
Wikelman Gonzalez
Gonzalez in 2023 played at High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland. In 25 starts he went 9-4 with a 3.96 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP, a 0.6 HR/9, a 5.7 BB/9, and a 13.6 K/9. At Portland he went 3-1 in ten starts with a 2.42 ERA, and 63 strikeouts.
Mikey Romero
Romero in 2023 played across three levels with the Red Sox rookie ball team, Single-A Salem, and High-A Greenville. In 34 games combined between the three levels he slashed .214/.294/.286 with a .579 OPS; he had five doubles, two triples, 13 RBI, 15 runs scored, two stolen bases, and 14 walks.
John Schreiber
Schreiber in 2023 46 appearances going 2-1 with a 3.86 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 46.2 innings of work. For his career he has made 139 appearances going 8-6 with a 3.58 ERA, a 3.46 FIP, a 1.24 WHIP, a 0.9 HR/9, a 3.3 BB/9, and a 10.4 K/9.
Wrap Up:
Is this a trade the moves the needle for you this offseason and gets you somewhat excited for the 2024 Boston Red Sox. I for one being a little greedy would love signing Yamamoto and then pulling this trade off and even signing Montgomery; that would counter every other move in the American League East and give the Red Sox a rotation of
1.) Yoshinobu Yamamoto
2.) Corbin Burnes
3.) Brayan Bello
4.) Jordan Montgomery
5.) Chris Sales
That would be an exciting rotation and would put the Red Sox right to the top but being realistic would this rotation be a legit competitor?
1.) Corbin Burnes
2.) Brayan Bello
3.) Jordan Montgomery
4.) Chris Sale
5.) Tanner Houck/Kutter Crawford/Nick Pivetta
I am okay with any of those options but you have to get a number one this offseason and Yamamoto doesn’t sign in Boston go get this trade done.
