Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is still one of the best young sluggers in Major League Baseball. Could he wind up on the Boston Red Sox?
It’s long been a fantasy that has recently begun to gather real traction, at least in the form of insider speculation. Jon Heyman of the New York Post and Bob Nightengale of USA Today have both said within the last week that a Guerrero-Red Sox partnership is on the table when the slugger hits free agency.
Rather than waiting until next winter, when his free agency does hit, is there any shot the Red Sox jump the line and trade with the division-rival Toronto Blue Jays to get Guerrero now?
On Friday, Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer came up with a hypothetical trade package that would send Guerrero to Boston in exchange for shortstop prospect Franklin Arias and right-handed pitching prospect Luis Perales.
“The team should have the money for it, and Guerrero probably wouldn’t need to be sold on Fenway Park. He has a 1.054 OPS there, compared to a .823 OPS at the Rogers Centre,” Rymer wrote.
“As fun as it is to imagine a Guerrero-for-Triston Casas swap, the two players have mismatched trade values. It’s also hard to fathom the Red Sox being OK with sending such a dangerous young hitter to a division rival.”
Rymer’s Red Sox offer represents a scenario in which the Blue Jays are suddenly desperate to get ride of Guerrero, which was probably the only scenario in which they’d ever consider moving him within the division. From that perspective, a slightly lesser return makes sense.
Where Rymer is correct, too, is that trading Casas for Guerrero would be far too dangerous on Boston’s part. Casas has three more years of team control than Guerrero does and has nearly identical stats in a smaller sample size to the Toronto star since he entered the big leagues.
It’s still more likely that if Guerrero does wind up in Boston, it will happen through free agency. But with a player this talented, the trade rumors will continue to fly all season long.
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