The Boston Red Sox have made many improvements since last season, but they have one major hole in their roster: They desperately need a catcher.
Catcher Connor Wong remains injured, but struggled at the beginning of the season before his injury. With Wong out, the Red Sox are very thin at the catcher position, especially after dealing top prospect Kyle Teel in the trade for Garrett Crochet.
One option Boston could look to trade for is the Baltimore Orioles’ No. 1 prospect, Samuel Basallo. Heavy Sports’ Jonathan Vankin pitched that the Red Sox could trade All-Star pitcher Tanner Houck now that Brayan Bello has returned from injury.
“But the Red Sox have one serious need — a catcher,” Vankin wrote. “The organization’s catching pipeline offers very little after they traded their top prospect at the position, Kyle Teel, to the Chicago White Sox as part of a package that brought back lefty ace Garrett Crochet.”
“What do the Orioles have to offer, if they wanted to extract Houck from the Red Sox? As it happens, their organizational No. 1 prospect is a catcher. A straight up swap of Houck — who will earn a reasonable $3.95 million this year with two more seasons of team control — for the highly ranked prospect Basallo would serve the needs of both the Red Sox and the Orioles.”
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The Orioles need a pitcher, and sending a 2024 All-Star in Houck would be a great way to acquire a catcher for the Red Sox. Basallo is the No. 12 overall prospect in Major League Baseball, according to MLB Pipeline, and could be ready for the big leagues as early as this season, but is hindered by Adley Rutschman starting.
Trading an All-Star pitcher like Houck may be a tough pill to swallow, but adding Basallo to be the catcher of the future for the Red Sox could be worth the price.
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