According to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, the Red Sox have made finding an elite starter for their starting rotation a top priority. However, “not at any cost, but a reasonable cost,” he adds.
Last winter, the Red Sox reached out to the Mets about potentially dealing for Mets right-hander Matt Harvey. However, all dialog ended after the Mets brought up the names of outfielder Mookie Betts and shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who the Red Sox will not trade.
Boston also inquired about Chris Sale and Sonny Gray last offseason, and sources say they have recently spoken to the Marlins about Jose Fernandez.
The way I see it, after six years of rebuilding the franchise through acquiring and developing young and hard-throwing starting pitchers, the last thing Sandy Alderson will do at this point is to begin dismantling the rotation it took so long to build.
I’m not saying that Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz are untouchable, only that it would require a tremendous haul that would preclude most teams from even negotiating for them. And rightfully so.
Additionally, as I wrote earlier today in one of our comment threads, there is no way I would even deal Zack Wheeler unless the Mets were getting a proven impact hitter with a track record and at least two years of team control. Anything less and Sandy should just slam the door shut.
I am shocked at some of the names being bandied about in a deal for Wheeler. It’s as if people just want to give the guy away just for the sake of making a trade.
Luckily, we have a general manager who snickers at some of these preposterous rumors floating around – most of which are generated by bloggers who have too much time on their hands and not enough baseball acumen or intellect.
