Rasputin said:
I suppose that it's possible for someone who has been to blah blah blah to have an opinion as stupid as "they should trade Pedroia to ease the outfield situation because Betts is going to be here soon" but I sure as hell wouldn't want to bet on it.
I think that Pedroia has about three years left as a starter; yet, he is signed through age 38.How much trade value will he have at age 36? Even age 35? They needed to rebuild the team after last season and if they could have traded Pedroia, he would have brought a lot back in return. They had Betts on the roster, Sean Coyle and some other kids on the way up.
While there has been major attempts at rebuilding, what has been done in the way of pitching is very iffy. It could work but....
Starters (last season)
----------------------------
Buchholz -- 4.01 ERA/1.386 WHIP/-1.6 WAR
Kelly -- 4.62/1.288/+0.3
Masterson -- 5.88/1.632/~ -.82
Miley -- 4.34/1.401/+0.8
Porcello -- 3.43/1.231/+4.0
-----------------------------------
AL -- 3.81/1.284 (only one starter was below league-average in RA and WHIP and one about average in WHIP)
Bullpen (2013 in parens)
Breslow -- 5.96 (1.81)/1.859 (1.123)/-1.3 (+1.6)
Mujica -- 3.90 (2.78)/1.383 (1.005)/0.0 (+1.5)
Ogando -- 3.81/1.920/-0.6 (didn't list 2013 because he was basically a starter that season)
Ross -- 6.20 (3.03)/1.698 (1.316)/-1.9 (+1.2)
Tazawa -- 2.86 (3.16)/1.190 (1.200)/+0.8 (+1.0)
Uehara -- 2.52 (1.09)/.917 (0.565)/+1.7 (+3.6)
Varvaro -- 2.63/1.079/+0.9 (didn't list 2013 because he has been fairly consistent)
The AL average pitching WAR per team for 2014 was 14.35; the 12 Red Sox pitchers added up to about +3.3 (starters: +3.7, relievers: -0.4). That is a lot of bouncing back to do by a number of pitchers. Say that 4 starters and 5 relievers do bounce back, then they can probably get by with players from the PawSox, but if more fail, they may well need to trade away prospects to contend.
data from baseball-reference.com