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The Boston Red Sox made a trade on Monday, sending one of their starting pitching options to the Milwaukee Brewers for an intriguing return.
Both teams have multiple starters on the injured list right now, but with a competition mounting for the final spot in Boston’s rotation and improved depth from a season ago, the Red Sox felt they could survive with one less option than they broke camp with.
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“The Red Sox today traded right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester to the Milwaukee Brewers,” the team announced on Twitter. “In exchange for minor league outfielder Yophery Rodriguez, a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick, and a player to be named later or cash considerations.”
Priester made one start for the Red Sox in September, pitching five innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run on four hits. In his nine starts with Triple-A Worcester, he put up a 5.40 ERA and 8.5 hits per nine innings.
Despite Priester’s struggles, his strikeout rate provided some hope that he could develop into a major league starter, maintaining a 9.9 K/9 in Worcester. The Red Sox will now turn to Sean Newcomb and Hunter Dobbins to fill that role in the back end of the rotation.
In the trade, Boston receives the 19-year-old Rodriguez who is ranked by MLB.com as the Brewers’ No. 7 prospect. The outfielder has played three games at High-A to start this year, hitting .417 with three runs scored, one double, and one triple.
The Red Sox have had recent success in their development of young players, and have added yet another outfielder to an already stacked farm system, and acquired the 33rd overall pick in this year’s draft.
That is quite the hall for Priester, who was surpassed by both Newcomb and Dobbins not long after Richard Fitts pulled away from the entire pack. Trading Priester for the No. 33 overall pick would have been a win by itself, credit to Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow for taking advantage of a pitching-starved Brewers club and getting a haul.
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