The Boston Red Sox have traded outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Detroit Tigers for Rick Porcello, alleviating their logjam in the outfield and addressing pitching concerns in one fell swoop. While the Tigers didn't necessarily have a pitching logjam, they did need another bat to add some depth to their lineup.
Red Sox trade Yoenis Cespedes to Tigers for Rick Porcello
The Tigers get a bat, the Red Sox an arm.
Cespedes, acquired from the A's at the July 31 trade deadline for starting pitcher Jon Lester, hit .269/.296/.423 in his brief time in Boston, slugging five home runs (and three triples, impressively). Cespedes has alternatively been overrated and underrated in his three-year major league career. He burst onto the scene with a .292/.356/.505 rookie campaign, and while that was a bit much in the batting average department, pretty much everything else has held. He doesn't get on base much, with an OBP just south of .300 outside of his rookie season, but he does hit for power, and from the right side, two qualities highly coveted in today's game. Offense is dropping league-wide making taking on his poor OBP a little more palatable for the Tigers.
Porcello is likely a better fit for the Sox than the Tigers, given their superior infield defense. He broke out in 2014, posting a 116 ERA+ while cracking 200 innings for the first time. He’ll be a free agent in a year, just like Cespedes, so this is two win-now teams swapping win-now resources so they can -- you guessed it -- win now.
The Red Sox rotation has undergone a significant makeover in the last day of the winter meetings, with both Porcello and Wade Miley joining Clay Buchholz and Joe Kelly.
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