With the placement of
David Price on the 10-day DL (and, let's face it, the
real possibility of
Tommy John surgery as well), the Red Sox should be
actively out there on the trade market for another starter. They are obviously desperate, so the bidding has just gone up on all five of the 'realistic' options out there. They are:
Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers,
Sonny Gray of the A’s,
Gerrit Cole of the Pittsburgh Pirates,
Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers and
Johnny Cueto of the San Francisco Giants. Both Darvish and Cueto can "opt-out" of their current deals at the end of the 2017 season—so their "rental" cost would be substantially less than the others—but it's still a rental. Verlander is owed $56 million
more through 2019—so, despite
Dave Dombrowski's passion for Mr.
Kate Upton, that's a non-starter (unless Detroit eats a chunk of the cash). Gray will cost beaucoup prospects (the Yankees just stalled their talks with the A's because of the silly asking price). So, welcome to Boston, Mr. Cole—under team control through 2019!
