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Red Sox trade: Top 10 organizational prospect among three players Boston gave up for slugger
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- Red Sox trade: Top 10 organizational prospect among three players Boston gave up for slugger
The Red Sox sent two top 30 organizational prospects in addition to starting pitcher Hunter Dobbins to the Cardinals for slugger Willson Contreras on Sunday .
Contreras is a 33-year-old first baseman/DH and can provide depth at catcher if needed. He ranked in the 91st percentile in outs above average (six) among first basemen last year.
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Below is a look at Dobbins and the two prospects (Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita) Boston gave up in the trade:
Yhoiker Fajardo
Fajardo spent exactly one year in the Red Sox organization. Boston initially acquired the 19-year-old Venezuelan pitching prospect from the White Sox for reliever Cam Booser last Dec. 21.
Baseball America recently named him Boston’s No. 9 prospect after he entered the 2025 season unranked among the organization’s top 30 prospects.
The 6-foot-3, 181-pound righty saw a fairly significant increase in his velocity during his one year in Boston. Fajardo’s fastball was mostly around 95-96 mph and topped out at 97.8 mph this past summer. He had sat around 93-95 mph with his fastball in 2024.
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Fajardo began the 2025 season pitching in the Florida Complex League where he allowed just one earned run and struck out 24 in 20 ⅔ innings (0.44 ERA) while holding opponents to a .134 batting average. The Red Sox then promoted him June 17 to Low-A Salem where he posted a 2.98 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, .229 batting average against, 59 strikeouts and 20 walks in 13 starts (51 ⅓ innings).
Blake Aita
Boston drafted the 22-year-old right-handed pitcher in the sixth round (177th overall) of the 2024 MLB Draft out of Kennesaw State.
He began the 2025 season with Low-A Salem where he recorded a 4.24 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and .240 batting average against in 10 outings (nine starts). The Sox promoted him June 10 to High-A Greenville where he posted a 3.78 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and .194 batting average against in 13 outings (10 starts).
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Overall, he struck out 99 and walked 30 in 115 ⅓ innings between the two levels.
Baseball America ranks him Boston’s No. 28 prospect . He has high spin rates on both his cutter and sweeper and his “92-93 mph fastball has average ride and heavy armside run,” according to BA .
The 26-year-old posted a 4.13 ERA in 13 outings (11 starts) for the Red Sox as a rookie in 2025 before suffering a season-ending ACL tear July 11 .
Dobbins showed strong command with a six-pitch mix that includes a fastball that averaged 95.5 mph. But he struggled to generate swing and miss. His 17.6% strikeout percentage ranked in the 14th percentile and his 21.9% whiff percentage ranked in the 22nd percentile.
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He pitched to contact and had a 78th percentile ground ball percentage (48.4%).
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