The Boston Red Sox swung yet another trade on Thursday night and now are oozing with starting pitching depth.
There aren’t many teams around the league that have swung trades this offseason. There are significantly fewer that have made two to add starting pitching. But that’s where the Boston Red Sox are now. The Red Sox reportedly agreed to acquire hurler Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
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It’s just Dec. 4 and Boston already has acquired two different starting pitchers through trades. So, what’s next? Arguably, the Red Sox have enough pitching depth that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to see if anything could be packaged together in a significant blockbuster trade. Maybe that could happen, but MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam did say that in the aftermath of the deal, Garrett Crochet, Sonny Gray, Oviedo, and Brayan Bello all are seemingly “untouchable.”
Boston has so much pitching right now
“At the very least, the surplus of starters puts the Sox in an enviable position as the Winter Meetings gets underway in Orlando this weekend. It would seem that Crochet, Gray, Oviedo and Brayan Bello are untouchable, but nearly any other of the team’s young controllable arm could put the Sox in a position teams can only dream of,” McAdam wrote.
That’s fair. Crochet obviously isn’t going anywhere. Gray and Oviedo just got brought in. Bello is on a long-term deal and potentially could be the No. 2 guy for this team in general. He has that upside. Outside of these guys, the Red Sox have prospects like Connelly Early and Payton Tolle to go along with veterans like Tanner Houck. Kutter Crawford, and Patrick Sandoval. Boston has options at its disposal, even if these guys are untouchable.
At the end of the day, you can never have too much pitching. Boston lost some arms in 2025 and made that point especially clear. Now, the Red Sox are in a much better position.
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