Looking Back Upon Old Trades: #2 Ben Cherington Trades For Eduardo Rodríguez

One move I would like to mention as an honorable mention would be Cherington trading for Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, and Guillermo Mota in November of 2005. During this time, Cherington was technically the co-GM of the team alongside Jed Hoyer, as Epstein had resigned after October 2005, and in return for those three, Cherington and Hoyer sent top prospect Hanley Ramírez along with pitchers Aníbal Sánchez, Harvey García, and Jesus Delgado to the Florida Marlins. As everyone knows, Beckett and Lowell were key pieces for the 2007 team that won a World Series. Delgado and García didn’t amount to much for the Marlins, while Ramírez and Sánchez would be key pieces for the team before both being traded in 2012.

The Ben Cherington move I would like to dive into has had a lasting effect on the organization since. In 2014, the Red Sox were struggling; heading into the trade deadline, they recorded 48 wins and 60 losses. While not officially eliminated from the playoffs, they were unlikely to return there and had already made moves to trade away key players like Jake Peavy and Jon Lester. Then Cherington moved a player to a division rival who had started to come into his own in Boston.

Andrew Miller had been acquired by Theo Epstein before the 2011 season and struggled as a starter. In 2012, they tried him as a reliever, where he succeeded before showing his potential in 2013 with a 2.64 ERA and 48 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings pitched. 2014 saw him take another step forward. In 50 games with the Red Sox before being traded, Miller had a record of three wins, five losses, and an ERA of 2.34 in 42 1/3 innings pitched. He had 69 strikeouts, and teams in contention would love a hard-throwing left-handed reliever for the playoffs.

That was when the Orioles became a match when they agreed to ship off one of their top prospects, left-handed pitcher Eduardo Rodríguez. The trade was a straight-up swap of lefties and both sides came out as winners. The Orioles got their lefty for their bullpen as Miller would pitch in 23 games down the stretch to the tune of a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings. He would also strike out 34 batters in that stretch. The Red Sox, however, got a young, left-handed pitcher who they ended up slotting into their rotation in mid-2015. The 2014 season was lost, and the Red Sox were looking towards the future and got that in Rodríguez, who wound up winning 10 games his rookie season, starting 21 games and throwing 121 2/3 innings in 2015.

Although his time in Boston was filled with ups and downs, Rodríguez pitched six seasons for Boston, winning 64 games and making 159 appearances, 153 of them starts. He threw 856 2/3 innings while in Boston and was a key member of the 2018 championship team.

But it was his leaving Boston that made this trade so influential. Following the 2021 season, which saw Rodríguez win 13 games and lose eight, pitching in 32 games and throwing 157 2/3 innings, he became a free agent. The Red Sox and Rodríguez tried to work out a deal during the season, but neither side could find something that worked for them. Instead, Chaim Bloom extended a qualifying offer to Rodríguez at the end of the season. It was declined as expected, and he would go on to sign a five-year deal worth $77 million with the Detroit Tigers. The Red Sox, in return, received a compensation pick that would be awarded following the second round of the 2022 draft.

That pick could potentially be franchise-altering as it turned into their current top prospect, Roman Anthony. Anthony was taken with the 79th pick, and the compensation pick was awarded to the Sox after they lost Rodríguez. With Anthony expected to play a role in Boston sometime in 2025, this is a case where a trade could have an impact nearly a decade later.

While Ben Cherington stepped down as GM in August 2015, his trade for Rodríguez was a case in which no one knew how the future might unfold. No one would have thought we could have acquired a franchise player a decade after acquiring Rodríguez, and yet, it was an amazing accident that it occurred.