Red Sox trade Mitch Moreland to the Padres

The Red Sox have made their second trade of the season, and it’s sending away a fan favorite. Mitch Moreland has been sent to the Padres in exchange for third baseman Hudson Potts and outfielder Jeisson Rosario. In addition, to make room on the 60-man player pool, Marco Hernández was released.

We’re obviously going to have more on this trade tomorrow as we have a little more time to digest it, but we’ll stick with the basics for now. Moreland was having a phenomenal season for the Red Sox this year, hitting .328/.430/.746 for an incredible 204 OPS+. He’s played mostly against righties, which has helped, but he’s been one of the few bright spots on the team. That said, with the organization housing some young first baseman, it made sense to explore offers. Moreland now gets to head west and play for one of the most exciting teams in baseball in the Padres, who have a real chance to make noise in the postseason. He’ll likely be splitting time between first base and DH with Eric Hosmer.

As for the return, it is more than I would have expected to get for Moreland. In Potts, the Red Sox get an infielder who turns 22 after the season and has some legitimate power potential. He’s likely limited to third base in the field and has some real swing and miss issues he has to overcome, but there is real potential in this former first round pick. He spent 2019 at Double-A, hitting .227/.290/.406 over 448 plate appearances.

Rosario, meanwhile, is a year younger than Potts, turning 21 after the season. An outfielder, Rosario has the athleticism and instincts to hopefully stick in center field down the line. At the plate, his hit tool carries the day and if he can develop it into its ceiling he should have more than enough between that, his defense and his speed to make up for what is below-average power. Last season at High-A, he hit .242/.372/.314 over 525 plate appearances.

Potts and Rosario ranked 11th and 20th, respectively, on FanGraphs’s preseason Padres rankings. Neither player needs to be added to the 40-man roster. They do, however, need to be added this winter or they will be eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 Draft.

As I mentioned above, Hernández was also released to make room on the 60-man player pool. He looked like a potentially very good utility man not all that long ago, but shoulder injuries unfortunately decimated his career.

In addition to all of this, it was reported by Alex Speier that the Red Sox would indeed be calling up Bobby Dalbec, one of the top prospects in the system, to take Moreland’s spot on the active roster. Dalbec may be starting at first base today and should get the bulk of the starts there for the month of September.

Like I said, we’re going to have more on this in the morning, but my brief overall thoughts are that I am bummed about losing Moreland, who somewhat improbably became one of my favorite players on the team. That said, this is a very good return on paper for the Red Sox.