Dealin’ Dave Dombrowski.
That’s the nickname the Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations earned over the past couple years for pulling the trigger, making some big trades and shipping off many of the team’s top prospects. It’s a long list, right? But it probably won’t get much longer.
Dave Dombrowski was on WEEI on Wednesday, and here’s what he said on the possibility of some more prospects being traded in the next month-and-a-half.
“Our farm system has played well for us, but we’re not really looking to trade our premium guys,” Dombrowski said. “It’s not that you’re not going to trade players, but guys like (Rafael) Devers and (Jay) Groome, who are a couple names that come to mind right off the bat, are premium guys. You just can’t keep trading everybody at some point.”
Got it.
The Red Sox definitely have some needs. They could use a starting pitcher. They could use a third baseman. But they’ve paid arms and legs for Chris Sale, David Price, Drew Pomeranz, Tyler Thornburg, Craig Kimbrel, etc. under the Dombrowski administration, so that’s enough depletion for now.
Besides, there are two players the Red Sox have in their system, who could be MLB third basemen in the next few years. Rafael Devers is batting .305 with 11 home runs and a .914 OPS in Portland. Michael Chavis is hitting .338 with 17 home runs and a 1.088 OPS in Salem. Their bats are ahead of their gloves, but they’re both bound for promotions in the next month or so. That’s two top third base prospects in the upper minors. No wonder why the Red Sox don’t want to pay for a third baseman: one of those guys might be their future third baseman.
It doesn’t always take a big addition to improve a team too. Seriously, what else can the Red Sox do on the mound? They have two former Cy Young winners, a Cy Young contender, a 2016 NL All-Star and then a 2016 AL All-Star on the Disabled List and a guy who had a 3.54 ERA in 11 outings this year on the DL.
Hector Velazquez hasn’t gotten much of a shot in the bigs. Who knows? Maybe he’s an adequate No. 5 starter.
Give it a month and maybe we’ll see that it’s in the Red Sox best interest to not trade any big guns in the minors.