The Red Sox are the hottest team in baseball right now, but Christian Vazquez’s injury leaves a hole at catcher they need to fill.
Boston is currently cruising with a 3.5 game ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, but that doesn’t mean their front office can stand pat ahead of the trade deadline. In particular, catcher Christian Vazquez’s broken finger may force the Red Sox to make a move by the end of the month.
One report believes the perfect move would be to pry Wilson Ramos away from Tampa Bay. The Rays are well out of the playoff race and should be looking to trade anyone of value for future reinforcements. Ramos might be the best trade chip on the roster.
After all, the All-Star catcher is hitting .295 with 14 home runs so far this season. That’s a significant improvement over Vazquez’s numbers prior to his injury. He’s scheduled to miss somewhere between six to eight weeks with a broken finger, but he was only hitting .213 in 2017 at bats to begin with. It’s very possible the Red Sox would have been shopping for an upgrade at catcher even if Vazquez had remained healthy.
The best news of all for Red Sox fans is that Ramos will be a free agent after this season. That means Tampa Bay isn’t in a solid position to ask for a ton in return for the talented backstop. At most, the Rays can hope to get on reasonable prospect in the deal. This isn’t the sort of transaction that’s going to lay the Boston farm system bare for years to come.
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The Red Sox doesn’t have a lot of holes to fill before the trade deadline arrives, but upgrading their catcher position would be a great way to keep the Yankees a bay. Ramos would give them a player to fill-in for Vazquez while he’s injured, and very likely keep him on the bench once he returns to full health.