Craig Breslow on whether trading prospects for pitching makes sense: 'That's the conundrum, right?'
If the Red Sox want to acquire young and controllable starting pitching this offseason, it’s going to cost them some of the young prospects in the farm system.
Even before the hiring of Craig Breslow, the Red Sox were openly talking about the need to acquire young staters with seasons of control. To land such pitcher(s), the Red Sox will need to part with a top prospect or more.
Is that worth it for Breslow?
“That’s the conundrum, right?” said Breslow to the media on the first full day of the Winter Meetings. “Controllable starting pitching is coming at a premium this season. But the value of controllable pitching is you don’t have to dip into free agency every single year.
“So as we talk about this level of consistency and quality that we’re trying to build here, control is a really important part of that.”
Breslow’s goal is get the Red Sox farm system in a spot where they are developing young starters to avoid the need of exploring the trade market and free agent pool every offseason.
Boston has two pitchers they’ve recently added to their 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 Draft. Wikelman Gonzalez and Luis Perales figure to impact the big league roster at some point in the coming years, but not next season.
“As we think about who the premium prospects in the organization are,” said Breslow, “it’s not a secret that most of them are on the position player side.”
Boston is loaded with young position players lead by catcher Kyle Teel, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and Outfielder Roman Anthony. Teel is the closest of the trio making it to the bigs and figures to be Boston’s franchise catcher. Anthony is showing tremendous upside and might be a franchise-type offensive talent. Mayer was the former No. 4 overall pick following the 2020 season. He’s at Double-A but has had injuries sideline him each of the last two seasons.
Are any of these three players untouchable? That’s a strong word to use for any player within a major league franchise. But could Boston trade anyone of those controllable players to land a controllable top young pitching talent?
“Untouchable is a tough word, right?” said Breslow. “Because in reality, our goal is to win as many major league games as we possibly can. I think there are prospects who are going to contribute toward that, but if we have the opportunity to win more games by making them available in a trade, we need to consider that.”
Boston hasn’t developed pitching in years, Brayan Bello is the latest young arm thats impacting the Red Sox roster. Beyond that Breslow doesn’t have much to work with and it’s putting him in a tough spot this winter when deciding who will stay and who will go in a potential trade.
Breslow is trying to avoid pitchers that have a compensation pick attached to them. Yoshinobu Yamamoto would only cost the Sox money while guys like Dylan Cease, Corbin Burnes, Logan Gilbert, Edward Cabrera will cost young controllable prospects.
Can internal pitchers like Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock and Kutter Crawford provide upside? Sure. But Boston needs an ace and might have to sell out for one this winter.
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