Red Sox Best Starter Trade Target Edition

While pondering the mysteries of the cosmos I found myself listening to Jim Callis of Baseball America discuss the Red Sox top 10 prospect list with Alex Speier of WEEI.com on his Minor Details podcast.  It's over an hour long, but among the nuggets I gleaned were:

• The Red Sox have three very good starting pitchers in the top 5 or 6 from their system, including Matt Barnes, Henry Owens and Allen Webster.  Owens is a tall lefty who Callis believes could be the best of the three, Webster has a lot of movement on his pitches and throws a plus slider, and Barnes has the best fastball and a plus curve.
• Jose Iglesias is ranked at #9 is the system and is considered elite defensively but almost a loss as a batter.
• Scouts believe that Will Middlebrooks has great range at third base and made Mike Aviles look better because Will the thrill could cover so much ground.
• The Red Sox have even more starting pitching depth that is outside the top 10 this year but has been in the top 10 prior years but dropped because of injury
• The #1 prospect Xander Bogaerts is only 20 years old and over the course of the interview was compared to Derek Jeter, Hanley Ramirez and Cal Ripken, has an incredible bat including plus power, his defense most likely in more than serviceable at shortstop, and will probably be ready to start in the majors in 2014.

This information led me to the Red Sox starting pitcher needs, the lack of rock solid good fits for the starting rotation in free agency other than Anibal Sanchez, with a few lower priced pearls thrown in, and a potential trade target I thought would be a much better bet for around the same price of the oft injured Miami Marlins Ace Josh Johnson.  I am speaking of the soon to be 27 year old fireballer Yovani Gallardo of the Milwaukee Brewers.  Gallardo is an Ace just like Johnson, but with a better fastball, younger, healthier and more cost effective.  And despite the Brew Crew making noise about getting in on Josh Hamiltion they are still a place where few free agents want to go; they have limited cash, and need to have a cost controlled group of players to compete.  It would be difficult to get them to give up Gallardo, he's going to get $7.75 M in 2013 and $11.25 M in 2014, but they have one large contract that could be the key to a deal: Rickie Weeks. Weeks is their starting second baseman who just had a very disappointing year and is scheduled to make $10 M in 2013 and $11 M in 2014.  They also traded Zach Greinke to the LA Angesls last year for a highly touted infield prospect named Jean Segura, who they tried out at shortstop in late 2012 but is better suited for second. You can guess where I'm going with this but here in my proposed very realistic trade:

Brewers get:  SS Jose Iglesias ($2.06 M 2013, arbitration controlled through 2017), SP prospect Allen Webster, Junichi Tazawa who could fill the gap in their bullpen left by K-Rod and just finished a great year in the Red Sox bullpen, and a Jerry Sands or Ryan Lavarnway type, someone with some power potential who would never be given the time here in Boston unless the team is aiming for one of the worst seasons in franchise history like last year.

Red Sox get: SP Yovani Gallardo and 2B Rickie Weeks.

The Brewers get a defensive wiz in Iglesias, move their big prospect Segura to second, and one of the most hyped starting pitcher prospects in the majors in Allen Webster who is famous for being included in the Red Sox-Dodgers deal of century.  They could sell Webster to the fan base and Iglesias' fielding exploits will speak for themselves.  Tazawa came in and was about the only reliable reliever for Bobby Valentine the last part of 2012. He is being pegged as a dominant reliever or good starter and is at or near the top of his trade value at this time. Some cost controlled power thrown in should sweeten the pot enough considering the Sox would be giving up two of their newly minted top 10 prospects.  They would also get plenty of salary relief, maybe even enough to throw at Josh Hamilton's damaged reputation to tempt him to sign with them.

The Red Sox give from a position of strength, which amazingly is starting pitching prospects.  I haven't even mentioned Ruby De La Rosa, who has some major league time with the Dodgers thus didn't end up on the prospect list.  If he did he might've been #1, an extremely high ceiling 23 year old who was included with Webster in the big Dodgers Sox deal.  They use some of that financial flexibility to pay Weeks top 10 starting second basemen money to be a super utility player and get Gallardo to join the top of the Red Sox rotation for years to come.  The Sox could then go out and find a stop-gap shortstop (remember Alex Gonzalez?) to play until Bogaerts, who combined with the rangy Middlebrooks would be a solid left side of the infield, is ready and splurge on a bullpen arm or two.  Oh yeah, and save money by not overpaying Anibal Sanchez.

As Queen so eloquently put it, is this the real life, is this just fantasy?  Maybe they're not sour on Weeks and the fact that Prince Fielder and C.C. Sabathia decided to leave has no bearing on their ability to sign a high priced free agent in a compromising position such as Hamilton. But then again, maybe not.  Pound those phones Cherington!

Until next time,

The SAHD