The MLB Hot Stove is really starting to come to a raging boil after one of the top starting pitching free agents found a new home on Wednesday.
The Boston Red Sox are reportedly set to sign Ranger Suárez to a five-year, $130 million contract to slot in next to Cy Young hopeful Garrett Crochet atop their rotation.
While Suárez appears set to become the Robin to Crochet’s Batman, he wasn’t the first high-caliber All-Star linked to the role this winter.
In fact, the Kansas City Royals faithful will certainly remember that the Red Sox had reportedly been kicking the tires on Cole Ragans as a return for Jarren Duran in a potential deal, but GM J.J. Picollo has dismissed the notion that his ace is for sale this winter.
However, while the Suárez deal might complicate a potential Royals-Red Sox trade, perhaps it could be a blessing in disguise for any further negotiations they have with Boston.
Royals-Red Sox trade relationship could be impacted by the Ranger Suárez signing (but perhaps that’s not entirely in a bad way)
At first glance, it might be easy to assume that the Red Sox could be out of the starting pitching market with Suárez through the door.
Along with him and Crochet atop their starting staff, they also feature the likes of Bryan Bello as well as the newly acquired duo of Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo.
Considering the Royals’ best trade asset this winter has been their immense starting pitching surplus, the current state of Boston’s rotation after bringing in a top end starter could put them out of the running.
That being said, what hasn’t been eliminated is the fact the Boston still has a surplus of major league outfielders and Kansas City could still desperately use some impactful names in their outfield mix.
Perhaps eliminating a need could open the Red Sox up to new possibilities in negotiations, as the Royals aren’t completely devoid of tradeable talent beyond their starting pitching.
Boston could stand to do better from catching depth perspective with Carlos Narváez and Connor Wong at the major league level and a positional depth in the minors that’s yet to really rebound after trading away top prospect Kyle Teel in the Crochet trade last winter.
The Royals happen to have three catchers within their Top 10 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, and four in their Top 30. Maybe a Blake Mitchell type could be of interest.
They also have plenty of intriguing young names in their prospect ranks like Yandel Ricardo, David Shields, Kendry Chourio, Drew Beam or Daniel Vazquez who have promise but may end up being blocked in the depth chart when their respective call up times come.
Does the Suárez deal complicate this prospective trade relationship? Yes, no doubt. The Red Sox added in a place that Royals could have easily supplied that need.
However, if they were truly hung up on Ragans for Duran before this signing, suddenly there seems to be less of a need for Boston to continue asking for Ragans with a seemingly full rotation.
This could easily mean the likelihood of the Royals keeping Ragans if they strike a deal for Duran looks a lot stronger now than it did when this week started.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source kingsofkauffman.com ’
