Good morning! The Red Sox made a trade last night. And, regardless of whether you think it’s a good trade (Matt makes a pretty strong argument that it is) it’s definitely a curious trade, because Johan Oviedo certainly seems to fit the profile of one of those mid-rotation starters that Craig Breslow had said the Sox weren’t going to focus on this offseason.
So what exactly do we think is going on here? One possibility is that Breslow is so high on Oviedo that he views him more favorably than anyone else on the staff bar Garrett Crochet and Sonny Gray. Another possibility (the one I lean towards) is that the Sox weren’t all that high on Jhostynxon Garcia and, knowing he was buried in the depth chart anyway, saw an opportunity to flip him for a player who would be more useful on this roster.
But there’s one other possibility, and it’s the most interesting one of all: there’s another, bigger deal on the horizon. It was just a few days ago that we heard rumors of the Red Sox being interested in Ketel Marte to fill the hole at second base. And while the Sox probably do have enough young pitching to get the deal done, they don’t necessarily have enough young pitching to get the deal done without putting a serious dent in their pitching depth. So is it possible that Oviedo was brought here in anticipation of a deal that sends one or more of Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Brayan Bello, or Kutter Crawford out of town?
