Red Sox Again Pursuing Angels Shortstop Zach Neto

[Steve Drumwright]

 

The Boston Red Sox are definitely on the hunt for an upgrade at shortstop.

One of their targets is Zach Neto of the Los Angeles Angeles Angels.

According to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, Neto was on the Red Sox's radar last offseason, but not to the point where names of prospects or other assets were exchanged. Now, with John Mozeliak recently taking over the Angels' front office at least on an interim basis, the Red Sox have been back in contact.

The Red Sox are suddenly buyers following a 15-game winning streak that took them from last place in the AL East to currently holding the third and final AL wild-card spot. Neto is making $4,150,000 this year and is under club control for another three years after that. Neto entered Thursday with a slash line of .238/.326/.446 with 19 homers, 46 RBIs and 13 stolen bases.

Injured starting shortstop Trevor Story is making $25 million this year and next year, with a club option for 2028. Story, out since May 14 due to surgery for a sports hernia, is not expected to start a rehab assignment until August.

The Red Sox are currently getting by at short with a platoon of Andruw Monasterio and Tsung-Che Cheng.

 

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[southpaw777]

As long as we don’t have to give up much. I don’t see anything special. A good ballplayer though.

[Hugh2]

Here are some BTV Accepted trades for Neto: 

1. Marcelo Mayer/Anthony Eyanson/Kyson Witherspoon

2. Yoeilinis Cespedes/Kyson Witherspoon/Anthony Eyanson/Justin Gonzalez

3. Anthony Eyanson/Justin Gonalez/Harold Rivas

4. Franklin Primera/ Kyson Witherspoon/Justin Gonzalez

 

[mvp 78]

28 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

As long as we don’t have to give up much. I don’t see anything special. A good ballplayer though.

Because of sentence #2, I'm just not super interested. I'm not moving top tier prospects for him. He's not a SS. 

[Hugh2]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Because of sentence #2, I'm just not super interested. I'm not moving top tier prospects for him. He's not a SS. 

We don't need a SS, we could use a 2B though.  Arias or Mayer will be the short stop next year. 

[mvp 78]

If they acquire Neto to be 2b, I'm fine with it. There are other moving parts that they'll have to deal with at some point (Story, Mayer). I wouldn't give up Eyanson, Arias or Primera in the deal. Any other prospect is available. I'm only dealing those 3 if a superstar is coming back. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

21 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they acquire Neto to be 2b, I'm fine with it. There are other moving parts that they'll have to deal with at some point (Story, Mayer). I wouldn't give up Eyanson, Arias or Primera in the deal. Any other prospect is available. I'm only dealing those 3 if a superstar is coming back. 

I'm ok with giving up Eyanson, because starting pitching is suddenly deep in the org. But Arias and Primera play the other two most important positions on the diamond -- spots where the Red Sox haven't had stars since Bogey was winning Silver Sluggers and Tek was catching no-hitters.

Q: who is the superstar available you would deal that trio for? I can't even condone swapping all of them for a home run hitting catcher who strikes out a million times and isn't an above-average receiver.

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Because of sentence #2, I'm just not super interested. I'm not moving top tier prospects for him. He's not a SS. 

Im running out of comparative jokes for this.  But Neto does have less range than, well, ummm… errr… something really rangeless?  StatCast puts him in the bottom 2% snd in a scary trend where he went from 71% to 10% to 5% to 2% for his career, so it’s not just one bad season.  If anything, 2023 is his freakishly good outlier.   

He’s probably a 3b in the near future (or more likely a bad SS).

His batting profile isn’t that great either.  But he is a legitimate RHH pull hitter that would benefit from Fenway.

Id be ok giving up Mayer and Eyanson.  But not Arias, because if you get Neto, you’re going to need a SS very soon…

[Hugh2]

I love how no one wants to give up the players they'd have to give up to get the players they want. 

 

 Henry Godbout, Kyson Witherspoon and Sadbiel Dezline have equal surplus value to Anthony Eyanson but they do not make up from excluding him from a package for a premium player and they never will. 

[notin]

Just now, Hugh2 said:

I love how no one wants to give up the players they'd have to give up to get the players they want. 

 

 Henry Godbout, Kyson Witherspoon and Sadbiel Dezline have equal surplus value to Anthony Eyanson but they do not make up from excluding him from a package for a premium player and they never will. 

Hey I put Mayer and Eyanson out there.  I think that’s fair.  Maybe not acceptable to LA, but it is fair…

[southpaw777]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

Because of sentence #2, I'm just not super interested. I'm not moving top tier prospects for him. He's not a SS. 

Yeah, I don’t even want him to be honest. 

[notin]

14 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

Yeah, I don’t even want him to be honest. 

As much as I like Cheng (a sentence uttered by no baseball fan ever outside of Taiwan), an upgrade at SS is actually a good idea.

Story and Mayer can possibly be disassembled with maybe between them enough parts to build one reasonably healthy shortstop.  But until this happens, a Plan B is probably in order.

Personally with Arias on the close horizon, is a long term solution like Neto or Lindor really necessary?  Focus on getting a hitter and wait for one of the THREE shortstops the Sox have on the IL to come back?

Or would it be crazy to call up a SS with a .993 OPS in 330 plate appearances above A ball?  It’s risky.  The Sox might have to DFA some guy named Brett Harris…

[mvp 78]

42 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I love how no one wants to give up the players they'd have to give up to get the players they want. 

 Henry Godbout, Kyson Witherspoon and Sadbiel Dezline have equal surplus value to Anthony Eyanson but they do not make up from excluding him from a package for a premium player and they never will. 

If Neto was a premium player, I'd include Eyanson. 

[Hugh2]

16 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If Neto was a premium player, I'd include Eyanson. 

Neto is certainly not my first choice. 

[Behindenemylines]

Since both 2B and SS are a need for Sox my interest is peeked by Neto. Right-handed power from the middle infield. It all depends on the Angel's asking price.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, Hugh2 said:

We don't need a SS, we could use a 2B though.  Arias or Mayer will be the short stop next year. 

I firmly disagree on your claim that we don't need a SS.

Cheng and Monasterio have done okay, but SS remains one of our weakest areas. We can argue that 2B, Catcher and pitcher depth might be a higher need, but we need a SS.

We can NOT count on Arias anymore than we counted on KC, Anthony and Mayer a year or two ago. I think he will help, but even if we trade for a 3+ year controlled SS, if Arias earns his way to ML starter, we can make it work out, somehow. (One plays 2B for a while.)

[moonslav59]

To me, Neto looks like the biggest prize, but if bidding gets absurd, I'd pass.

[Hugh2]

9 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I firmly disagree on your claim that we don't need a SS.

Cheng and Monasterio have done okay, but SS remains one of our weakest areas. We can argue that 2B, Catcher and pitcher depth might be a higher need, but we need a SS.

We can NOT count on Arias anymore than we counted on KC, Anthony and Mayer a year or two ago. I think he will help, but even if we trade for a 3+ year controlled SS, if Arias earns his way to ML starter, we can make it work out, somehow. (One plays 2B for a while.)

I meant we don't need a shorts stop for the future, because we have Arias.  That doesn't mean we don't need another one this year.  Someone can move to 3B/2B after that. 

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

I meant we don't need a shorts stop for the future, because we have Arias.  That doesn't mean we don't need another one this year.  Someone can move to 3B/2B after that. 

Yes, you worded it here, better than I did.

We agree.

[Deja Doh]

See if Trout would waive his no trade.  He will never win in Anaheim.

[moonslav59]

17 minutes ago, Deja Doh said:

See if Trout would waive his no trade.  He will never win in Anaheim.

We will never win if Trout is with Boston.