Pirates Named Fit For Red Sox Outfielder
Rarely does a trade involving a pair of young players line up well for both teams involved.
Maybe the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox could find a different fate.
Bleacher Report's Zachary D. Rymer listed one potential trade candidate for every team and landed on right-handed pitching prospect Braxton Ashcraft for the Pirates and left-handed hitting right-fielder Wilyer Abreu for the Red Sox. Along with those two players for their respective teams, they listed the Red Sox as a potential landing spot for Ashcraft and Pittsburgh as a team to watch for Abreu.
Abreu is coming off of a rookie season in which he slashed .253/.322/.459, hit 15 home runs and drove in 58 runs over 132 games. While trading a player after his rookie season when a team has control of him through 2029 appears to be a head-scratcher, the Red Sox surplus of left-handed position players, including their top prospect in outfielder Roman Anthony, could force the issue.
"Abreu is only 25 and his club control runs through 2029. He's a valuable asset just on those terms, which is to say nothing of how he had a solid .781 OPS and outstanding defensive metrics as a rookie this season," Rymer wrote.
Ashcraft is the Pirates' No. 4 overall prospect and ranked No. 85 in all of baseball by MLB Pipeline. He was 3-2 with a 2.84 ERA in 16 appearances (14 starts) across Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis this season while striking out 77 batters over 73 innings. The Pirates also boast several other top 100 pitching prospects in Bubba Chandler (No. 15) and Thomas Harrington (No. 91).
Given the Pirates' pitching depth throughout their minor league system, using that to their advantage to land an established bat to help improve an offense that was in the bottom-10 in most major categories this season should at least be on the table.
"You can rule the Bucs out of making an impact in free agency, though, which means it's trade market or bust if they want to add a hitter (or hitters) with any kind of heft," Rymer wrote. "To this end, their best hope involves leveraging their surplus of young arms."
