Let's not mince words here. The Red Sox could use an outfielder. A real, proven, MLB-level outfielder. So far in this season, the Sox have made do with surprisingly good performances from Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava, but relying on those guys, Bill Hall, and Eric Patterson too much is more likely to end in catastrophic failure by the end of the season than it is to end in a World Series ring.
Recently, it's been sounding like Philly Jayson Werth is becoming available. In a few ways, he may be just exactly what the Red Sox need - bullpen notwithstanding.
To begin with, a right-handed outfielder who can play left or right field has been a need from the start. Upon his return, Ellsbury will be playing in center. Cameron will either be playing every once in a while or be attempting to recover on the DL. If he does stay on the roster, Werth would be able to play left most of the time, and when Drew needed a rest (usually against a tough lefty), Werth could shift over to right. If active, Cameron could act as an effective 4th outfielder so that his injury didn't get stressed too much- playing in left when Werth moves to right or needs a rest, and occassionally playing center to give Ellsbury a rest.
His bat would be a huge plus, even over the surprising (and unlikely to last) production of our horde of Pawtucket outfielders. His defense has always been a plus, and I'm confident that he'd be able to handle both left and right fields in Fenway effectively. His swing looks like it would play wonderfully in Fenway- he can hit with power to all fields, but should be able to turn the monster into green swiss cheese. He hits for average, power, and gets on base at a very good clip. Essentially, he is almost a right-handed J.D. Drew.
As an added bonus, at the end of this season, he is a type A free agent who, as one of the elite hitters in this FA class, is absolutely not going to accept an arbitration offer- so come November, either Theo will sign him to a new contract with the Sox, or the Sox will gain two new draft picks from the Phillies. Win-win.
Of course, there's an obvious flipside to this, which is that Werth will not come cheap in any case.
If the Phillies are looking to solve their immediate middle-infield woes, there's little we can do. As evidenced by the fact that our current second baseman is Bill Hall, we do not have majors-ready middle infielders. Obviously, our bullpen also doesn't have any pieces that we can move to help their out either.
If they're looking for long-term prospects, we may have more that could interest them. But if you were Theo, what would you give up for him?
Doubront? Kalish? Reddick? Niuman Romero (no, I wasn't serious, calm down.)? First person to suggest Lars gets smacked, because Ryan Howard is going to be there a while.
Personally, I don't really know exactly what the Philly system needs, but I could see something centered around Doubront- he's showing quite a bit of promise, and the Sox rotation doesn't have any clear openings he could fit into for quite a while, and hopefully Kelly or (assuming they sign) Ranaudo will be up to taking any openings then.
Any ideas on what this would take?
I do believe that if this team gets healthy it is the best team in the AL East, but to overcome these injuries, we will need to be absolutely dominating down the stretch and I think Werth is the type of player that could really make that happen.