Red Sox Shockingly Place Top Prospect On Trading Block In Proposed Winter Move

Boston has a logjam of talent in the infield and a dire need for pitching

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The Boston Red Sox have too many talented middle infielders in the organization and too few elite pitchers.

For Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, trading Trevor Story would be the obvious first step, if only it were plausible.

The Red Sox are likely stuck with Story for the time being, which leaves them hoping he can get healthy in 2025 and either re-assert himself as an All-Star shortstop or at the very least rekindle some semblance of trade value for Breslow to work with.

Boston has what looks like a future star in Ceddanne Rafaela on an excellent contract that Breslow will avoid parting with unless someone’s interested in providing an ace-level starter in exchange for a Rafaela-centered package (Rafaela’s good, but not that good … yet).

Then there’s the recently acquired Vaughn Grissom to account for, as well as two highly talented prospects surging up Boston’s farm system in Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell. Any or all of these three players will demand big-league reps in 2025 (Grissom’s already there, of course), which would place manager Alex Cora in a depth chart conundrum if Breslow can’t move one or two of these guys.

A few months ago it would have seemed sacrilegious to even consider trading Mayer, Boston’s highly-touted prospect, but times are a-changin’. 

Roman Anthony has overtaken Mayer this season as the Red Sox’s No. 1 prospect due to Anthony’s consistent rise combined with Mayer’s consistent injuries, and there’s a new shortstop prospect in Portland challenging Mayer for the title of Boston’s top middle infield prospect — Kristian Campbell.

Some scouts even believe that Campbell — not Anthony or Mayer — has already separated himself as Boston’s top prospect.

While the entire world of baseball — most of all Boston — hopes that Mayer recovers from his most recent injury and returns to elite form in 2025, Breslow is currently faced with a unique opportunity concerning Mayer.

Given Boston’s urgent need for starting pitching, could Breslow dangle Mayer out onto the winter trade market and see what a package centered around him can garner, especially while his stock is still high?

If a Mayer package can reel in a front-end, prime-aged starter for the Red Sox, Breslow should consider pulling the trigger, especially given Boston’s ridiculous depth at infield and Mayer's recent yellow flags, health-wise.

In a worst-case scenario for Mayer, his injury-riddled 2024 becomes more of a trend than an outlier year moving forward, and Breslow would have sold high on Mayer before his stock plummeted.

Should Breslow wait on Mayer's return before parting ways with such a premium talent? Probably. But it can't hurt to place him on the block this winter and see what happens.

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