BOSTON — Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom continued his quest to make his team stronger in the middle by acquiring talented but oft-injured infielder Adalberto Mondesi in a trade from the Royals on Tuesday.
In exchange, the Red Sox sent left-handed reliever Josh Taylor — also a player with an injury history — to Kansas City. The Red Sox will also get a player name or cash rewards as part of the trade.
At Mondesi, the Red Sox get a player who led the Majors in triples (10) in 2019 and stole bases (24) in 20, but hasn’t been on the field much in the past two seasons. With rule changes coming into play this season that are expected to increase stolen bases, a player like Mondesi believes he is more valuable if he can stay healthy.
Mondesi tore his left ACL on April 26, 2022, which ended his season. It typically takes an athlete about nine months to recover from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which puts Mondesi on track to be ready for spring training.
In his career, Mondesi started 241 games at shorts, 64 games at second and 20 at third base. Although Hernández has only made 64 starts on the court compared to 187 on the second, Bloom recently said the veteran is a positive defender wherever he plays. Cora raved about how fast Hernández’s first step would play at shortstop.
For the past two seasons, Hernández was Boston’s primary center fielder. But after Xander Bogaerts left via free agency and Trevor Story underwent right elbow surgery that will keep him indefinitely, the Sox decided to bring Hernández back on the field while agreeing to a deal with free agent slugger Adam Duvall to play on the center field. . Hernández said a few days ago that he prefers playing on the pitch because he likes to play at a faster pace.
Duvall’s one-year $7 million addition is unofficial as the deal is pending a physical. But the position-player alignment is finally in place for Cora.
The range might look like this:
Masataka Yoshida, LF
Kike Hernandez, SS-2B
Raphael Devers, 3B
Justin Turner, DH
Alex Verdugo, RF
Adam Duvall, CF
Triston Houses, 1B
Adalberto Mondesi, SS-2B
Reese McGuire, C.
Rover Christian Arroyo, outfielder Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong would be available on the bench. Cornerman Bobby Dalbec and outfielder Jarren Duran will also be battling for roster spots.
The son of former MLB outfielder Raul Mondesi, Adalberto has been plagued by injuries throughout his career, playing just 358 games while appearing in games for seven seasons, all with the Royals. He can become a free agent after the 2023 season. After making his famous MLB debut for Kansas City in the 2015 World Series, Mondesi posted a lifetime slash of .244/.280/.408 with 38 homers and 133 bases. stolen in the major leagues.
Taylor was a dominant left-to-left pitcher for the Red Sox in 2021, but didn’t pitch at all in the Majors in 22 due to a back injury. He has a 3.69 ERA with 129 Ks in 102 1/3 innings spanning 121 appearances (one start) for the Red Sox over three seasons (2019-21). The southpaw, who turns 30 on March 2, is controllable until 2025.
Thomas Harrigan contributed to this story.