The Red Sox have made a significant trade, sending Gold Glover Wilyer Abreu to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for catcher prospect Harry Ford, the former No. 12 overall pick. This move makes sense for Boston, as they’re looking to replenish their catcher position after trading away elite prospect…
The Boston Red Sox made some gigantic moves this offseason, but they might not be done in that regard, even with the regular season beginning on Thursday.
Boston has a surplus of Major League-ready talent at the top end of its organizational depth chart, which has created good problems at a few positions.
Take the Red Sox outfield as an example. Boston will begin the season with an elite, young outfield featuring All-Star Jarren Duran and rising stars Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu.
The Red Sox also have a monster waiting in the wings, however, as outfielder Roman Anthony — MLB’s No. 1 prospect not named Roki Sasaki — will begin the season with Triple-A Worcester Red Sox.
It’s only a matter of time before Anthony, along with stud prospects Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell (a member of Boston’s Opening Day roster), are everyday starters for the Red Sox.
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden even predicted that Boston’s “Big 3” will be playing in the bigs together by June … but how will the Red Sox arrive at such an outcome given their current personnel logjams in both the outfield and infield?
The easy answer is that the Red Sox will trade away one or two of their current starters to make room for the kids.
In the outfield, that makes the Gold Glover Abreu a prime candidate to be moved.
One idea for Boston would be to trade Abreu in exchange for a catcher prospect, seeing as backstop isn’t a position of great strength for the Red Sox at present — Connor Wong is a serviceable starter, but not elite.
Seattle Mariners catcher prospect Harry Ford is an interesting potential target for Boston in an Abreu trade. Ford is the No. 64 overall prospect right now, per MLB.com.
Seattle has awesome pitching but is in dire need of another impact positional player who can hit, so the Mariners would likely perk up at the chance to acquire Abreu.
Ford would make sense for a Red Sox squad that recently traded away an elite catcher prospect of its own in Kyle Teel. An Abreu-Ford swap would allow Boston to replenish the catcher position from a farm system standpoint while creating an immediate opportunity for Anthony in 2025.
Entering Wednesday, Ford was 8-for-19 at the plate in Spring Training with six RBI and three stolen bases (OPS: 1.170) — not bad.
The 22-year-old former No. 12 overall pick slashed .249/.377/.367 in 116 games for Double-A Arkansas Travelers in 2024.
