Does not sound ideal. We probably will not find out, but I wonder if they knew this at the time of the trade? Making this transition at the start of a new season is odd.
I suspect they talked about it before the start of the season.
He's an interesting cautionary tale in terms of evaluating prospects in the summer leagues. There was a lot of buzz around him when he was traded to Boston, a lot of folks were surprised he was the throw in PTBNL. He wasn't a star prospect, but he was a guy folks thought could pop once in the lower in minors - think the early reports we heard of guys like Miguel Bleis 2 years ago (albeit, with a very different skill set). He was a guy that folks thought could be a really good prospect shortly before the trade, someone to follow.
He had some decent results in the summer league and scouts like his physical tools, a lot.
Sox Prospects ranked him very highly initially due to his reputation but strongly reversed course after seeing him live for the first time. Their view on him was that it was true that he was a physically gifted athlete with lots of strength and raw power, but very little to like in terms of the hit skill. They didn't feel he had good pitch recognition and his swing was ugly.
Below is the write up from Ian Cundell after they got some exposure to him:
While
Freddy Valdez fell all the way to 51st in the August SoxProspects rankings, it is better thought of as a correction following our receipt of information from scouts in Fort Myers. When we initially ranked Valdez after he was acquired from the Mets as part of the Andrew Benintendi trade, it was based on limited data after his performance in Mets’ extended spring training. Based on a much larger sample, we consider his current rank where he probably should have been to begin with. Valdez is hitting .221/.358/.325 in 92 plate appearances this year. He has four doubles and two triples, but has yet to hit a home run. Scout feedback has been tepid as well. His swing is ugly, and he lacks plate discipline. Valdez has a bit of bat control and some power, but as a potential below-average defensive corner outfielder, he is going to have to be an impact bat to reach his potential, and scouts are skeptical about that occurring.
http://news.soxprospects.com/2021/09/scout-chatter-eduardo-vaughan-freddy.html
He's said to have a really strong arm. Hopefully he's able to make something out of pitching.
Baseball is really hard.