Boston Red Sox Reportedly Acquire Catcher Adley Rutschman in Deal with Orioles
The Red Sox' pursuit of a catcher is reportedly over as they land the switch-hitting catcher from Baltimore.
Video Transcript
What's up, everyone?
Zach Coe here for Roundtable.
After the Red Sox have made a massive swing ahead of Monday's six o'clock trade deadline, acquiring All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for a massive prospect haul, including the top two pitching prospects in the Red Sox organization, Anthony Ianson and Kyson Witherspoon, one of the biggest arrow up prospects in all of baseball in outfielder Endy Azocar, major league catcher Carlos Narvaez, and a player to be named later.
Along with Rutschman, the Red Sox will also be receiving catcher Jake Rogers and Cash.
Now, this is really a massive gamble from Craig Breslow.
Rutschman, of course, was the number one pick in the twenty nineteen draft out of Oregon State, and he's been a relative disappointment to expectations, thanks in part to being limited to a hundred and fifty-seven games over the last two seasons, thanks to a litany of injuries.
He currently finds himself on the ten-day injured list with left wrist inflammation, though the latest reports out of Baltimore were that he was getting set to head out on a rehab assignment in the next week or so.
In sixty-seven games, he's hitting two fifty-one with a seven sixty-four OPS, eight home runs and forty-seven RBIs en route to his third All-Star nod.
He's also one of the best defensive catchers in baseball, grading out among the best in controlling the run game, catching fourteen of thirty-four base runners, while also being one of the best in framing, falling in the ninety-third percentile there.
But when you're talking about giving up this type of prospect package for a guy that only has a year and a half of team control, you're talking about a massive gamble, especially when you consider the uncertainty around the twenty twenty-seven season with the impending lockout.
You're really banking on three things here if you're Craig Breslow: one, that Rutschman can stay healthy, two, that he can return to his twenty twenty-three form and consistently be that guy that you thought you were getting or that Baltimore thought that they were getting when they selected him over Bobby Witt Jr. With the number one pick in that draft.
And three, that he's gonna be willing to sign an extension to stay in Boston now, because depending on who you talk to, it seems almost a certainty that there's going to be games missed in the twenty twenty-seven season as a part of this lockout.
So now you're risking trading this massive prospect haul, including your twenty twenty-five first and third round pick.
Anthony Ianson was the number thirty-four prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America.
Kyson Witherspoon is another top one hundred guy coming in at ninety-eight.
And Endy Azocar is more likely than not gonna end up on those top one hundred lists by the end of the season.
So you can't risk losing him for only a year of service time after giving up that kind of prospect haul.
And I assume that the Red Sox brass and Craig Breslow know that, and I wouldn't be surprised to see extension talks pick up pretty quickly here.
But still just a, a massive gamble, even if you consider the fact that an extension is more likely than not coming.
