The Gagne trade revisited

Some time has passed since the Red Sox traded Kason Gabbard, David Murphy, and Engel Beltre to the Ranger in exchange for Eric Gagne. While the first two are pretty well known names among Red Sox fan, neither have very much upside. Beltre, the 17 year old stud from the Dominican, is just that, 17 years old. The kid can't even vote. Potential is a scary word to throw around when talking about kids.

When you break down the players even further you will realize that they aren't top prospects at all. Gabbard, at best, is the 4th best pitcher in the Red Sox organization. You could also make the argument that Johnson, Hagadone, Hanson, Bard, and Pauley are more highly regarded that Gabbard as well. If you are to argue he is better than those four, it is hard to put him even in the same league as Masterson, Bowden, and Buchholz. What i am trying to get at is Gabbard wasn't anything special in terms of the Red Sox organization.

David Murphy is a kid that the Sox have been excited about for it seems like a decade. In reality, it has been 4 years since Murphy was a first round selection. For all his hype, Murphy has never posted an OPS over .802 in a season where he has more than 100 plate appearance. He is a good defender, but he is hardly anything special. He can play all the outfield spots, but would be a below average ML center fielder. In the context of the Sox organization, Murphy ranked anywhere between the 3rd and 6th best outfielder. He is definatly below Moss and Ellsbury. It is arguable that he is below Reddick, Engel, and Kalish. In summation, Murphy is, again, nothing special. He is, at best, a good 4th outfielder.

It is hard to evaluate where Engel Beltre ranks in term of the Sox. Their is no denying that he has tons of talent. You can't rank him among other known prospects since he is so much young than them. Lets rank him among international signings of the last two years. The Sox have signed three other bright young stars in that span other than Beltre, Tejeda, Almanzar, and Lin. In terms of signing bonuses, Beltre ranks second to Almanzar who signed for almost a full million more than Beltre. In terms of numbers to this point, Beltre ranks last. Almanzar has yet to play a game so he isn't included in this discussion. To make my point, he is not the only young bright star we have. My best guess, he is the third best youngster behind Lin and Almanzar.

Now that we have established that these players aren't all that special, what does that tell us? It tells us one of two things. It either shows how extremely strong the Red Sox farm system is or how overrated the Yankees is. The reason why i say that second thing is that the Yanks were in on the Gagne sweepstakes but withdrew because of the high cost. Obviously, Hughes, Chamberlain, Kennedy, and Tabata are strong prospects but i highly doubt those players would have been needed. It was the second tier of players and the Yanks couldn't beat a deal that had zero of the Red Sox top 10 prospects. The Yankees needed Gagne a lot more than the Red Sox did. So what happened here? I think that the Yankees prospects are a little bit overrated and the Red Sox are a little bit underrated. Either way, we got the guy and gave up very little. How can we complain.