Call to the pen
Fansided

Trading Price/Eovaldi, Keeping Betts should be on the wish list

By Ben Fadden

BOSTON - APRIL 5: Helena Akhtar, left, and Gabrielle Onofrio carry cutouts of Mookie Betts and David Price while promoting ALT 92.9 radio outside Fenway Park before the start of the game. The Boston Red Sox host the Tampa Bay Rays in their home opener for the 2018 MLB season at Fenway Park in Boston on April 5, 2018. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
BOSTON - APRIL 5: Helena Akhtar, left, and Gabrielle Onofrio carry cutouts of Mookie Betts and David Price while promoting ALT 92.9 radio outside Fenway Park before the start of the game. The Boston Red Sox host the Tampa Bay Rays in their home opener for the 2018 MLB season at Fenway Park in Boston on April 5, 2018. (Photo by Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) /
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Christmas Day is filled with presents and gifts so here is what is on Chaim Bloom and the Boston Red Sox’s Christmas wish list.

The Boston Red Sox enter the holidays with their team largely intact, which includes some of their biggest assets. Those assets might be more likely to be shipped off to other teams after the New York Yankees signed Gerrit Cole to fill the one major hole that they had on their roster.

So, what will Boston do with their assets? Let’s get to the Boston Red Sox’s 2019 Christmas wish list:

Offload big contracts from the rotation

The Boston Red Sox are trying to get under the luxury tax threshold, and while there has been some talk about getting rid of their right fielder–which I will get to–an alternative route is to trade one of their starters.

Chris Sale seems like he is the only safe starter to not be moved with Nathan Eovaldi and David Price as the two starters that could be moved.

Eovaldi was given a contract that he might not have earned but was given to him by Dave Dombrowski because he helped win them a championship in 2018. He will be getting paid $17 million in each of the next three seasons, and it is not hard to realize that he has not pitched to that level since he signed the contract.

But what could help the Red Sox find a suitor is if a team sees him as a bounceback candidate and they believe that he still can pitch to the 2018 level they saw in the World Series. Starting pitchers are getting money thrown at them, shoot Hyun-Jin Ryu just got $80 million from the Blue Jays when he has only thrown 160 innings in one of the last five seasons.

So, the Red Sox could use his lighter contract to lure teams to make a deal, especially if the Red Sox includes a prospect with Eovaldi to sweeten the deal.

Moving on to David Price, I think he would be easier to trade then Eovaldi despite him being paid much more annually.

Price still has a base salary of $96 million over the next three seasons, but he is not as injury-riddled as Eovaldi is. I think teams would be more willing to get Price even if they have to pay him more because they pretty much know what they are going to get.

Trading Price would not be hated among the fan base while trading the next player I am going to be talking about would not make Chaim Bloom a fan favorite in Boston.

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