The Red Sox added some much-needed middle field help on Tuesday, earning the shortstop Adalberto Mondisi and a player to be named later from the Royals in exchange for a left-handed reliever Josh Taylor. Both teams declared a trade.
At Mondisi, Boston acquired a hugely talented 27-year-old – but also one of the most injured players in MLB over the past few seasons. Dating back to the 2018 season, Mondesi has appeared in just 40% of the Royals’ potential games, missing time due to a right shoulder impingement, a groin strain, a pair of left shoulder dislocations, a left hamstring strain, an oblique strain and, most recently, a torn cruciate ligament. forward who wiped out the 2022 season. Both the left shoulder injury and ACL tear required surgery.
It’s a terrifying list of injuries Mondisi has picked up, but it’s nonetheless difficult not to be drawn to Mondisi’s combination of strength, pace and defense. In 1,366 major league games, Mondesi has 38 home runs, 54 doubles, 20 triples, and 133 stolen bases. He also earned above-average 23 points and an absolute zone rating of 13.3 in 2,126 career runs at shortstop.
In addition to injuries, this combination of raw skills is also undermined by an aggressive approach and sub-par ball-bat skills that regularly lead to sub-par OBPs. Mondisi rebounded in 30.2% of his appearances to the plate for just 4.4% of his walks, and is a career 244/.280/.408 hitter in the major leagues. That includes approximate .140/.204/.140 appearances in 2022, though that came in a small sample of only 54 plate appearances.
Mondesi has excited scouts, fans and residents for years now, but the Red Sox will be the first team other than the Royals to try to keep Mondesi healthy and increase the return on those starting gear. They only had his services for a year, though as he struggled to stay on the field, Mondesi had more than five years of major league service time during his various stints on the injured list. He and the royals avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $3.045 million salary in December.
Boston’s need for first-rate help increased during the winter Xander Bogaerts Heading to the Padres via free agency and Trevor’s story He has now been sidelined for at least a large part of the 2023 campaign after internal brace surgery on his right elbow. Boston signed Adam Duvall To play center field, and thus pay Enrique Hernandez to the central region. With Mondesi now on board, he’ll likely handle the bulk of his workload at short notice, when he’s healthy, while Hernandez slides into second base. Christian Arroyo He remains on hand as a utility option who can play second base regularly, should Hernandez need to slide into a shortstop in the event of Mondisi’s injury.
For the Royals, the Mondesi trade represents a disappointing result in terms of a player they once viewed as a potential constituent piece. The long term view of the field now has a new set of characters, highlighted by Bobby Witt Son and defensive lead Nikki Lopez. Mondesi’s trade should open up some additional playing time for the 24-year-old Michael Masseywhich the organization hopes will be a prominent part of Earth for years to come.
Kansas City has acquired three years from Taylor, an affordable and talented lefty reliever who missed the 2022 season with a back injury. When healthy, Taylor pitched an MLB-level 102 1/3 innings, recording a 3.69 ERA for an astounding 29.4% strikeout rate against an even more upsetting walk rate of 10%. Taylor averages about 95 mph on his heater, has medium flair for a groundball and has a whopping 15% career-high swing strike rate — a potential harbinger of more rookie strikeouts. It is set to earn $1.025 million in 2023 and may be controlled until 2025 via arbitration.
As talented as Taylor is, he’s had his share of health issues in his career. Lefty missed time with shoulder tendinitis in 2020 before dealing with a back strain in late 2021 and then missed the 2022 season due to a persistent back problem. He also struggled against right-handed batters, yielding a hitting streak of .283/.375/.429 against .173/.247/.228 slanted against lefties.
It’s the second trade in as many days for the Royals, who have now slashed just over $6.5 million from their 2023 salary by trading Mondisi and the center fielder. Michael A. Taylor. newly acquired Josh Taylor and left Evan Sisk, acquired in last night’s trade with the Twins, has given Kansas City a pair of left-handers who could make an impact on the Bulls this season. It also provides some additional resources for the royal family to continue mentioned The pursuit of a Zack Grenk reunion or perhaps another bat to add elsewhere in the lineup.
Univision’s Mike Rodriguez first mentioned that the two sides were approaching the Mondisi trade. MLB.com’s Mark Vinsand reported that a deal to send Mondesi and the PTBNL to the Red Sox in exchange for Taylor was in place (Twitter link).
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