Curtis Mead's Back-Breaking Injury Has Paved The Way For Red Sox To Pursue Gleyber Torres

[Nick John]

Against all odds, the Boston Red Sox are buyers this summer. The question now becomes: Which positions do they plan to target for an upgrade?

One area we know that they're looking to improve at is their middle infield. Entering the season, the organization hoped that the pair of Trevor Story and Marcelo Mayer could man shortstop and second base respectively, but injuries and poor offensive performances led to the team cycling through various alternatives such as Nick Sogard, Tsung-Che Cheng, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler. Second base is the more pressing area between the middle-infield positions.

The team, looking for an offensive boost made a shocking trade with the Washington Nationals. Sending Connelly Early to the Nationals, the Red Sox received power-hitting infielder Curtis Mead. He was expected to slot into the second spot in the lineup while playing second base. His offensive potential is huge, as he had 17 home runs with Washington, but in just his second at-bat following the deal, disaster struck (on the wrist). Mead would be removed from the game and the following day be diagnosed with a fractured wrist.

A replacement is now atop the priority list, but thankfully, the second base market isn't completely bereft of talent. Ranked 48th on DiamondCentric’s top trade deadline candidates list, Gleyber Torres could be a player the Red Sox look to acquire.

The right-handed hitting infielder has missed significant time this season due to two stints on the injured list with an oblique strain, but he's currently playing every day in the Detroit Tigers' lineup. While healthy, he’s put together a solid .270/.383/.392 slash line through 50 games. That also includes impressive walk (15%) and strikeout (19.8%) rates.

While he has had four straight seasons of at least 15 home runs, that streak is likely to end as he currently has just five due to his time spent on the injured list. Part of the problem is that he is not a big pull hitter this season. For his career, he’s pulled the ball around 34.4% of the time, but in 2026 that number has plummeted to just 19.9%. Likewise, his pull-air rate is just 7.5%, which makes makes you wonder how his swing will hold up in Fenway Park. However, his line drive rate and fly ball rate are nearly the same, sitting at 26% and 27.4% respectively, which is something that could lead to Torres hitting a lot of doubles into the right field corner or the right-center gap.

The infielder is on an expiring contract and will likely leave in free agency, so it's likely that Detroit will optimize their potential returns on the soon-to-be free agent. For the Red Sox, they would be acquiring a high-contact bat that would lengthen their lineup for a marginal cost. His speed is a non-factor and his arm strength is in the 8th percentile among all infielders, but Torres is a known quantity at a position of need. As the second second baseman acquired, it would be hard for the front office to do better than adding the former Yankees All-Star to their deadline haul.

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