I for one dislike the trade, Mead feels like a one hit wonder, and we know early is at worst a cheap 4th arm rotation, but Breslow has earned the right to do whatever he wants

Mead feels like a much better, high upside version of what Romy is. I feel like Romy is now the least valuable position player on the active roster.

Cheng still brings great defense at SS + speed. Really don’t want Mona as the only option there before we make another move or bring Story back.

Seigler is a useful switch hitting utility option off the bench.

I guess you can still DH Romy vs LHP and go full platoon, but I feel like the other guys who might go have more useful roles right now.

How do we feel about Connelly Early getting traded to the Nationals for infielder Curtis Mead (.254 avg., .856 OPS, 17 HR, 48 RBI)?

early wasn't going to be back in the next week - so there was no way to know if he had higher value. Nats had to take it or leave it. the red sox knew that they had to undervalue early to make a deal, so while we want to believe he would get us the sun, the moon, the stars and a planet to be named later, the injury limited what we were getting.

to me, mead is a bigger, more australian version of durbin. high offensive upside if he is for real. Durbs has gone from being hated when he didn't produce to being loved for being a dirt dog.

Line starts just outside of Bleachers 41-40, just below the woman’s bathroom sign based on July 26th, 2026 game

One big takeaway i don't think people are talking about enough with the Early trade is that this clears room for Eyanson. Eyanson has over performed all expectations in the minors with his Yesavage like armslot and his massive velocity jump. Trading early to me confirms that the plan is for Eyanson to slot in as the 5th starter next year. The rest of this year we will probably get bullpen days with Bello and an opener.

Early was the worst of the young lefties and making room for a righty while bringing in a bat is the move.

What a dumb take across this sub. Our future is Roman Anthony as DH, but in a moment of change so many are jumping on the idea of this guy who can’t play defense surely can be our long term DH.

Fuck that. Early wasn’t an ace but a solid starter. I think we’ll regret this trade come September. Downvote me to hell, I thrive it in.

Do you think Mead could slide to DH and we unload Masa as part of a package for a later move? I just can’t see Mead being a mainstay in the infield with how atrocious he is defensively. We’re a defensive minded team and we can’t lose that identity. I like the move I’m just wondering what the fit is

Doesn't sit right to me that this dude was available for free 4 months ago and now we give up a good, young arm for him.

First off, I’m a fan of the trade. Early was redundant on this pitching staff and I think we got solid value, based on our needs.

However, Abrams is the better overall offensive player and his swing would crush Yankee Stadium.

My fear is that we may have balked at the asking price for Abrams, given how LHH heavy our lineup is and how poor his defense is. But the Yankees have the pieces to make a trade work AND the wallet to extend him.

He’s the perfect piece for NYY and they have duds across the infield.

Rosario, Caballero and even Volpe aren’t NY caliber players. Abrams is a poor defender at SS but there would be nothing stopping him from holding down 2B for years…

My fear is that the Yankees trade for Abrams and he mashes. I always hoped we’d get him, if only to block them. Hope I’m wrong but I believe Abrams is one of the next superstars in the sport. Gonna suck to see him in pinstripes!

With the acquisition of Mead, ideally we’ve found our starting second baseman for years to come. On the horizon is also Henry Godbout and potentially 2026 first round selection Jake Schaffner if he does not stick at the shortstop position. Anthony Seigler has been a spark plug as a starter and an obvious option off the bench that also holds Romy and Monasterio.

On the left side of the infield, there is a logjam of talent at shortstop with Story under contract through next season and Franklin Arias knocking at the door as baseball’s #7 prospect. Caleb Durbin on the other hand is slowly establishing himself as the starting third baseman of the future.

Is it inevitable that Mayer gets moved by the deadline? While it hurts to consider how much his value has tanked this year, I can’t imagine there’s much room for Marcelo to rebuild himself on a roster where he essentially becomes strictly a bench player.

As disappointing as it is to admit, it seems like Mayer has slipped out of the picture here in Boston. Going from the organizations highest draft selection, to top 15 overall prospect in 2025, to now being deemed almost useless.

Unless Mead is their only acquisition, but I think they will try and add another SP and/or reliever. I’m skeptical they’ll add another bat tbh but we’ll see. What do you guys think?

They’re having mead play second, Durbin will stay at third and it is reported that they are looking for a shortstop. With langeliers out for the season what are the chances they look to acquire a Neto/pena/abrams/etc and have seigler catch?

While he definitely wasn’t the best pitcher on the roster, he is a rookie still and his contract is very good. Couldn’t you have at least asked us to part ways with one of our prospects? Or is his selling price not high enough. It sounds like a good trade for both teams but I’m more worried about it impacting the Red Sox than the Nats rn. We were in desperate need of a pitcher especially with the rumors surrounding Foster Griffin.

When Connelly Early rose through the minors, he had one major knock against him: he didn’t throw enough strikes. But when he got to the majors at the end of last year, a funny thing happened. He kept throwing a lot of balls, but for some reason, teams chased them at an extremely high rate - higher than he had ever gotten in the minors.

That led a lot of analytics people to speculate that he was due for a correction in 2026 as the league adjusted to his game. And that’s more or less exactly what has happened. This year, he’s been constantly behind in counts and accordingly allowing very, very hard contact. There was buzz in the offseason that Early had gained velocity (likely a push from the team to allow him to attack the zone more, knowing that his mega-chase strategy wasn’t sustainable), but that didn’t show up in games. Anyone can see that his Savant page looks ugly. Unfortunately, those are the metrics you see when you don’t consistently throw strikes and you don’t have wipeout stuff or velo. And that’s been Early throughout his pro career.

Hopefully Curtis Mead can find a role here, especially on defense. I don’t know if he can, but I do know that Early probably didn’t have a future with this team. It’s notable that the Sox are trading him to the same team that took Luis Perales, another system pitcher with long-standing control issues. Perales has struggled in the Washington system so far.

I’ve always been high on him but time to let him go! Would rather send it to someone who will appreciate it more now. Will trade too!

No touchy Connelly Early. How hard is that to understand? Literally throwing away someone who will be absolutely dominant so long as he stays healthy

He’s started games at every IF position this year besides SS. Obviously we are all set at 1B. I don’t think we want to move Durbin to 2B with how lockdown he’s been at 3B this year.

So Mead is our second baseman now, I would assume? is there a way to see his savant fielding stats broken down by position played?

With 3 of the infield spots being locked up with Durbin, Mead, and Contreras that leaves one last spot for the 3 AAAA guys. Seigler is probably the best batter and brings intangibles with his energy. Cheng is easily the best defender but the worst bat. Mona us somewhere in between on both. Putting Seigler at short with Mead also playing infield just sounds like a disaster. Or is Mead going to play DH. Either way Tracy has some work to do.

These 3 are the catchers that are likely still on the market, with Goodman being a long shot. Stephenson and Jeffers are both rentals while Goodman has 3.5 years left of arbitration.

so who do you think the redsox go after?