So who did they give up? The prize was Kyle Teel, the top catching prospect in the system. Teel was apart of the "Goldust Trio" with Roman Anthony and Marcello Mayer that terrorized AA pitching for the first half of the 2024 season. All three ended up in Worcester by the end although Mayer didn't play due to injury. Teel hit 13 home runs and drove in 78 runs between Portland and Worcester, so why was he on the trading block? Connor Wong broke out this year hitting .280 with 13 home runs as the starting catcher and Nathan Hickey is still in AAA. Wong turns 29 in May so he still has one or two years left of his prime. Teel will now be given a chance to start right away in Chicago.
Braden Montgomery fell to the Red Sox in the 2024 draft due to an horrendous injury suffered at the college world series for Stanford. He was one of the best outfielders in NCAA and a few teams were scared that his ankle wouldn't be the same. He was projected to go in the top 10 in the draft so if he lives up to his billing, Chicago may have a stud.
Chase Meidroth was a fourth round pick in 2022 and hit 9 home runs while driving in 57 runs for Greenville and Portland to finish 2023. In 2024 he was Worcester's starting second baseman hitting .293 with 7 home runs and 54 rbis. The Red Sox are willing to give Vaughn Grissom another chance at second base and they're still in the hunt for Alex Bregman, thus making Meidroth expendable. Another guy who might be a star in Chicago.
Wikelman Gonzalez was a Venezuelan teenager signed by Dave Dombrowski back in 2018. He started to break out in 2023 going 9-4 in 25 starts between Greenville and Portland. In 2024 he was 4-3 with a 4.74 ERA in 19 starts. Those numbers might seem disappointing, but at 22 years old he has a few more years to turn it around.
Elmer Cruz-Rodriguez was drafted as a high school junior out of the Puerto Rican baseball academy in the fourth round back in 2021. In 2024 he went 5-5 between Salem and Greenville as a 20/21 year old. Giving him up for a backup catcher seems like a bad trade.
Enmanuel Valdez was actually the more highly touted prospect when he along with Wilyer Abreu was sent to the Boston Red Sox by the Houston Astros for Christian Vazquez at the 2022 trade deadline. Valdez showed promise to end the 2023 season by hitting 6 home runs in 49 games along with batting .266. Then he fell apart in 2024 hitting just .214 in 76 games with 6 home runs. He got leapfrogged by Abreu and the Sox are banking on Vaughn Grissom having a bounce back season, hence, making Valdez expendable.
Now who did they get? Garrett Crochet made his MLB debut at 21 years old in the Covid shortened 2020 season. He went 3-5 with a 2.82 ERA as a set up man in the Chicago bullpen in 2021 and returned from a gruesome injury in 2023. He switched to the rotation in 2024 and went 6-12 with a 3.58 for a terrible White Sox team. The thinking is he will have much more success with a better offense in Boston. With Chris Sale traded before the start of last season, they needed a new lefty power arm. They got one.
Carlos Narvaez, like Gonzalez, was a Venezeulan teenager signed by the New York Yankees who made his Dominican League debut in 2016 at 18 years old. He developed an all or nothing power stroke starting in 2022 where he hit 10-11 home runs a year but batting .194, .239 and .254. He made his MLB debut for the Yankees on July 20th this past season and had just 3 hits in 13 at-bats. If the Sox are so desperate to save money they traded the career of Elmer Cruz for Carlos F'n Narvaez just so they could let go of Danny Jansen, they're far more pathetic than they're going to get critized for.
Instantly this improves the Red Sox rotation by putting Crochet at the top with Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford as your 2, 3 and 4. Lucas Giolito is due to return from Tommy John surgery at some point but the Sox can put themselves in better position if they make one more signing. The biggest fish still available in free agency is Corbin Burnes. If they open up the checkbooks to get him, their rotation instantly becomes comparable to the New York Yankees. Still, just getting Crochet is a step in the right direction. Narvaez is just a depth piece and it feels like they could have traded ANYONE to get him and they had to give away a future star.
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