Boston Red Sox SP Trade Target: Indians’ Carlos Carrasco

With the team clearly lacking primary talent at the top, the Boston Red Sox are going to be in the market for starting pitching this off season. Finding an ace pitcher will be the Red Sox’s first and most important order of business throughout the off season.

They could certainly look to free agency to fill this hole. Landing David Price, Johnny Cueto or Zack Greinke would immediately fix their issue of not having an ace. President Dave Dombrowski is not afraid to spend in free agency, and I would not be surprised to see the Red Sox become major players on guys like Price, Cueto and Greinke.

That being said, is that the really best option out there? Rarely do large free agent contracts work out well throughout the length of the deal. Red Sox’s fans know this well. Make no mistake, pitching is at a premium, and these guys are going to get PAID. Down the road, the free agent contract that these guys receive this off season is probably going to look ugly. Especially, when you consider the injury volatility of an MLB pitcher.

The more I think about it, the more I think the Red Sox should be targeting trade targets to help fix their starting pitching issues. With a deep pool of young position players to use as bait, the Red Sox could certainly do some damage in the starting pitching trade market.

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Dombrowski has a history of aggressively adding to his big league club by using the trade route. With reports already surfacing of Dombrowski looking to trade from the Red Sox’s deep system, attacking the trade market for high-level starting pitching may actually be the Red Sox’s primary plan.

I believe that the Red Sox will aggressively pursue upgrades in the rotation via trade, and it is a smart move. To prepare, I want to take a look at potential trade candidates for the Red Sox. Through the next few weeks, I am going to look at logical starting pitchers who could be obtained by the Red Sox in the trade market.

To kick this off, I already looked at young Mets’ right-handed pitcher Zack Wheeler who would seem to be a great fit for this team. Some of these guys are ace-level pitchers right now and some aren’t. Most of them though (like Wheeler), will at least have clear ace potential.

One thing is for sure, the Red Sox have a ton of intriguing offensive trade chips. If they are willing to deal from their strength, the possibilities for them on the trade market are seemingly endless.

Today, let’s take a look at Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco, who the Red Sox were already connected to during the trade deadline last season.

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Carrasco is a talented pitcher with obvious pure stuff. He is only 28-years-old, and is under cheap team control through the 2018 season with two team option years on his contract after that. Carrasco has one of the most team friendly deals in all of baseball. Couple that with his obvious pitching talented and project-ability going forward, and the asking price will be significant.

Why would the Indians even be looking to trade Carrasco? He is a potential ace for their staff who will cost them very little going forward. Cleveland carefully put him on the trade block before the trade deadline last year, and received a ton of interest as can be expected. That being said, the fact that no real traction seemed to start, shows that the asking price was probably sky-high, as it should be.

Nick Carfado of the Boston Globe put out there that the Indians are going to look to move fellow starting pitcher Danny Salazar instead of Carrasco. I though that was already obvious, as Carrasco is clearly the better player.

Whether it be Carrasco or Salazar, the Indians are clearly looking to add to their offense this off season by using one of the dynamic young starting pitchers. The Red Sox seem to be looking to do the opposite, making these two teams an extremely obvious fit.

If the Indians want to bring in significant young offensive pieces from the Red Sox, Carrasco is going to have to be the guy. Sure, a smaller deal for Salazar could be in the cards, but I think the Red Sox should push to add more and land the more talented Carrasco.

Next: Red Sox: Five Realistic Blockbuster Trade Targets

When it comes down to it, they are looking for a legitmate ace to grow with their young team. Few pitchers across the league would fit that bill better than Carrasco.