Sean McAdam<\/a> as saying \u201cI\u2019m absolutely dumbfounded by this\u2026This is literally one of the most ridiculous trades I\u2019ve seen in 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\nIn a similar vein, Marcelo Mayer was for years the face of the club\u2019s long-term rebuild and the heir apparent as Boston\u2019s franchise shortstop. His career has not panned out as hoped but he\u2019s still only 23 and possesses immense talent, yet the Red Sox just traded him for a left-handed reliever.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox could absolutely lose both of those trades, and the damage could be historic and long-lasting.<\/p>\n
But if the goal is to improve the roster and compete for a World Series title, these are the kinds of risks you have to take.<\/p>\n
Curtis Mead\u2019s ill-timed broken wrist was horrible luck, but the Red Sox got him for a pitcher in Connelly Early who was already injured and probably wouldn\u2019t have made the club\u2019s playoff roster anyway. Rutschman represents a massive upgrade over both Carlos Narvaez and Connor Wong at catcher, and new reliever Erik Miller should give the club a potent late-inning bullpen weapon.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s probably worth more to the Red Sox in 2026 than Mayer, who probably would have also been ticketed for Triple-A upon his return to the field.<\/p>\n
Years from now we might look back at Aug. 3, 2026 as a dark day for the organization. Maybe Mayer will turn things around and become a franchise cornerstone for the San Francisco Giants? Maybe Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon and Enddy Azocar, the three top prospects dealt to Baltimore in the Rutschman trade, turn into studs who torture the Red Sox in the AL East for years to come.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all on the table, but those prospects could all flame out too, and either way if the Red Sox keep up their momentum and make a deep postseason run this October, the Red Sox likely won\u2019t have any regrets.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week when Craig Breslow was speaking to reporters following the Curtis Mead trade, the Red Sox chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[1079,5581,5,141,48,2542,789,6930,6524,74109,1090,5638,1248,4,3449,89,2543,10281],"class_list":["post-769252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-adley-rutschman","tag-anthony-eyanson","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-craig-breslow","tag-curtis-mead","tag-enddy-azocar","tag-erik-miller","tag-kyson-witherspoon","tag-marcelo-mayer","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-trade-deadline","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-trade-deadline"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117034042224818565","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}