The Red Sox have traded starting pitcher Aaron Wilkerson and infielder Wendell Rijo to the Milwaukee Brewers for infielder Aaron Hill.
So there's pros and cons to this one, to say the least.
In the pros category: Aaron Hillfills the role of the right-handed utility bat the Red Sox have been looking for. He'll serve to fill in against lefties for Travis Shaw, who has struggled mightily against same-handed pitching, and generally provide another body in the infield for a team that's been pretty much without support there on the season.
In the cons category: the Red Sox, who are so damn hard-up for a starting pitcher that Sean O'Sullivan is their fourth man--not fifth, but fourth--just traded away a guy who was killing it in Triple-A and was left completely untested in the majors.
Maybe Wilkerson is nothing. That's entirely possible. Maybe calling him up would have removed the option of trading him for a helpful bench bat in the likes of Aaron Hill. The fact of the matter is that Hill is valuable. He's hitting .283/.359/.421 this season and is doing so even outside of a platoon role, meaning he provides starting insurance should a replacement be needed due to performance or health.
Rijo? Sure. He's a lottery ticket who's struggled mightily in 2016. Exactly the sort of player this team should be looking to trade for anyone who can help their push for a postseason spot.
But the Sox were in desperate need of starting pitching depth above all else, and Aaron Wilkerson was at least the potential for that. Now he's gone, and Boston is left with a rotation three men deep with a Quadruple-A pitcher up fourth and at best guess the shell of Clay Buchholz fifth.
If there's another shoe to drop--strike that, two other shoes to drop because the Red Sox are damn sure not well-enough off with one additional starting pitcher--then this could make some sense. Until those shoes drop, however, this seems like a strange, strange decision to trade from weakness to shore up positions which were much, much further down the list of priorities.