Red Sox Video
Catching up on some news from last week, the Red Sox pulled off their second trade of the offseason with the Pirates. It was a swap of right-handed pitchers, with Boston sending Chase Shugart, whom they’d designated for assignment earlier in the week, to Pittsburgh, and receiving Matt McShane in return. In an odd twist, not only is McShane is the second right-handed to be traded from the Pirates to the Red Sox for a DFA’d player this offseason, he’s the second one from the 2024 draft class who never ended up throwing a pitch in a game for the Pittsburgh organization. As you might recall, back in December, the Red Sox traded and Enmanuel Valdez to the Pirates for 19th-rounder Joe Vogatsky, whom the Pirates drafted in the 19th round out of James Madison University.
In some ways, the movie makes perfect sense and reflects where the two teams are. Shugart is 28 years old and made his major league debut with the Red Sox last season, running a 4.15 ERA over 8 2/3 innings and six appearances. He hasn’t run great numbers in the minors, and projections see him as a replacement-level arm. That’s not very useful to the Red Sox right now, as they have their sights set on making it into the playoffs. However, he’s a big-league ready arm with a fastball that averages 96 mph. The Pirates have their sights set a bit lower, and they have room on their roster to at least take a chance that Shugart figures things out this season. Just as they did back in December during the Valdez-Vogatsky trade, the Red Sox managed to get a lottery ticket in exchange for a player who wasn’t much use to them but had a chance of being useful to the Pirates.
As for McShane, he’s listed at 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, but because he never got into a game with Pittsburgh, there isn’t much to go on aside from his excellent college numbers. McShane was selected in the 13th round of the draft out of Saint Joseph’s University, where he went 14-2 with a 3.76 ERA over 119 2/3 innings pitched. McShane racked up 125 strikeouts in his three years as a Hawk. He also impressed in two summers with the Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod League, making the All-Star team in 2023. He ran a 2.18 ERA in 23 appearances and 45.1 innings, striking out nearly 30% of the batters he faced while allowing just two home runs.
According to Jake Bargery of Prospects McShane’s velocity ticked up in 2024, and his fastball reached 96 mph while sitting 93 to 95. However, Bargery noted that this was a particularly high-effort 93 to 95. The fastball was complemented by an effective slider and a somewhat scattershot changeup. If you want to draw your own conclusions, you can watch video of his pro day at Saint Joseph’s (below) or some game footage.
For right now, there’s no way to know if and when McShane, or Vogatsky for that matter, will have any impact on the Red Sox. The ability to get a couple lottery picks for a couple players who no longer fit on your roster is a luxury, and the Red Sox will likely view anything they get from them as a bonus.
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