Who had June 28th as the date the first domino falls?!
The Blue Jays have traded Steve Pearce and cash considerations to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Santiago Espinal.
The 23-year-old Espinal was taken in the tenth round in 2016 by Boston and hasn’t played above High A, though he’s currently having a great year in A ball, slashing .314/.364/.478 over 64 games for the Salem Red Sox. Espinal doesn’t appear on any top prospect lists, but he did appear on FanGraphs Fringe 5 last month:
As is the case with many player to demonstrate this kind of improvement in the majors, Espinal is hitting many fewer batted balls on the ground. In fact, his ability to avoid both the whiff and ground is tops among players at High-A
I get that he’s old for A ball, but this combined with the fact that he’s apparently above average at short definitely sounds good to me.
As for Pearce, what can you say? He’s not really a guy that will lead your offense, but he’s extremely valuable as one of the final pieces to a contending team, which uh, the 55-27 Red Sox are. Pearce hit .306/.358/.531 on his side of the left field platoon. Over the handful of games he played over two years here, he did his job, playing in the outfield and first base at a passable level. He also gave us these two magical moments just days apart:
The move clears another 40 man roster spot for Toronto, who now sit at 38. Lefty starter Tomas Pannone will take one of those when he returns from his 80 game PED suspension.
As for the domino thing, I don’t necessarily think this will start a flurry of moves, it’s just a matter of playing time. But trade season is almost upon us, folks, and pretty much every player on the active roster is available. We have just over a month until the deadline, and the team has a lot of moves left to make.
My guess is Happ will be next but not before his bobble head day
Cmon they couldnt to better than acquire a 23 year old A baller from a division rival!? Pearce is a good, useful player. They should have been able to extract a top 10 propect from the red sux.
Yeah, this pretty much proves that Shatkins is purposefully trying to screw us over. This has been their plan all along. Trade away our all star players for middling prospects.
(Just in case it wasn’t clear, this comment is dripping with sarcasm. But like seriously, they should have traded Pillar for Mookie, cash and 2 draft picks.)
You’d think they’d have done better, right? Pearce is the kind of gritty player they’ve been missing since Pedroia was injured. That should’ve been worth a top 10 prospect.
I get that you’ve gotta do your thing, AD, but while I love Pearce, he’s a 35-year-old who has played more than 100 games a total of once in his entire career, and who is a rental player. Saying he should have netted a top 10 prospect is just a tad ridiculous.
He won’t even be an everyday player for the Red Sox. He’ll be a bench player. Why would they give up a top 10 prospect for a bench player?
Because we’re in Stupidland,
You being the expert!
Responding to a troll will only encourage him. It’s tough though…..but don’t feed the monkeys. 😊😊
This has to be the final proof that AD is a parody account. Right? I mean…right?
Ad, Starvenger..same guy sitting in his basement, responding in between Star Castle games and trying to find internet friends with no luck.
Man, if I’m AD, I’ve clearly developed a split personality. Tbh I was just going along with the sarcasm GrumblePup brought.
We all know that no one is as gritty as Pedroia anyway. Just ask a Red Sox fan.
Haha…fair enough Ad…I mean Starvenger…