Red Sox Acquire Kyle Schwarber From Nationals In Exchange For RHP Aldo Ramirez

After watching the Rays add Nelson Cruz and the Yankees grab Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo, the Red Sox joined the AL East’s trade winds by adding Kyle Schwarber from the quickly dismantling Nationals. Schwarber’s game is clear: Mash, mash and mash some more. He had an otherworldly stretch earlier this year, when he clubbed 16 homers in 27 games in June.

Schwarber is currently on the IL with a strained hamstring and will not be available immediately.To acquire Schwarber, the Red Sox sent the Nats a promising but injured righthander in Aldo Ramirez, who impressed as a teenager in 2019 in the short-season New York-Penn League and again this year before hitting the IL with elbow tendinitis.

NATIONALS RECEIVE

Aldo Ramirez, RHP
Age: 20

Ramirez was signed by the Red Sox in 2018 as a 17-year-old and impressed the following year in the college-heavy New York-Penn League, where he ranked as the circuit’s No. 19 prospect. After a year away because of the pandemic, Ramirez has returned with a more fiery fastball. The pitch is sitting around 95 mph this season, a sizable jump from his time in the NYPL. He pairs the fastball with a high-70s curveball and high-80s changeup. Each offspeed pitch projects to average. If he puts all his pieces together he could fit in the back of a rotation. He was set to rank as Boston’s No. 13 prospect in our midseason update.

RED SOX RECEIVE

Kyle Schwarber, OF
Age: 28

Schwarber hasn’t played since early July due to a significant hamstring strain, yet his 25 homers are still tied for sixth-most in baseball. Those numbers were aided by an out-of-body June hot streak in which Schwarber hit 16 homers in 18 games, a pace on par with the likes of Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, and led to his first all-star nod. An unsustainable pace, sure, but Schwarber still brings immense left-handed power to Fenway Park. The more intriguing part is where he’ll play when he returns from his hamstring injury in 2-3 weeks. He’s a natural left fielder but reps there figure to be intermittent at best as long as Alex Verdugo is healthy. So far, Boston’s search for a productive platoon combination at first base hasn’t been fruitful from either side, and it has cycled through the likes of Danny Santana and Franchy Cordero recently as left-handed options. Schwarber hasn’t played first base as a big leaguer, but it would make plenty of sense to at least give it a shot.