This Red Sox-Cardinals Trade for Mookie Betts Could Actually Work
By Sean Facey
The St. Louis Cardinals swung an intriguing trade with the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, sending a package headlined by Jose Martinez to the Rays in exchange for elite pitching prospect Matthew Liberatore, catching prospect Edgardo Rodriguez and a post-second round compensation pick.
The move had some speculating that the Cardinals could be gearing up for a deal with the Boston Red Sox for Mookie Betts, though that's nothing but chatter. If the Cards were to pull the trigger, however, a deal featuring Liberatore, outfielder Harrison Bader and infield prospect Edmundo Sosa could actually be enough to get a trade for the 2018 AL MVP done.
New Red Sox honcho Chaim Bloom, previously with Tampa, was a big fan of Liberatore. No real info on this but but is it possible Cards are setting up a deal with Boston?
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 9, 2020
Liberatore, of course, is the juiciest piece in the deal heading to the Red Sox. Their pipeline has been starved of elite pitching prospects for quite some time now, and he'd be the perfect player to put an end to that. Let's also not forget that Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, formerly of the Rays, drafted Liberatore.
Pairing Liberatore with utility infielder Edmundo Sosa, who managed a respectable .801 OPS in Triple-A last year, would help inject some exciting talent into the farm system.
“We’ve often talked about playing pro ball together, playing for the same team."
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 10, 2020
Longtime friends Nolan Gorman and Matthew Liberatore will get that chance after the #STLCards acquired Liberatore on Thursday: https://t.co/ZWsVBUbhwB pic.twitter.com/sxaRkMgRKP
Harrison Bader would offset the loss of Betts at the major-league level. Though he's certainly not the superstar that Betts is, Bader brings elite defensive talent to the table, and he has shown flashes of brilliance at the plate. Simply put, he's a starting-caliber outfielder.
The St. Louis Cardinals need a game-changing talent. If they can cobble together this package, then they could conceivably have themselves one of the best players in baseball heading into the 2020 season and could make a run at a World Series in what seems to be a wide open NL.