Yankees reaping rewards of Red Sox trade with new top-100 prospect originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The New York Yankees made a pretty under-the-radar trade with the Boston Red Sox after the 2024 season.
It's reaping solid rewards for the Yanks right now in the rare exchange of talent with their heated rival.
The Yankees sent catcher Carlos Narvaez to Boston, where he actually had a solid season, but New York had no need for another catcher, so it was mostly a throw-away from the Yankees' side of things.
In return, the Yankees got Elmer Rodriguez.
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Rodriguez is a right-handed pitcher who now ranks No. 87 in all of baseball on the top-100 prospect list of ESPN's Kiley McDaniel.
"(At the time of the trade), his velo had bumped to the point that he was sitting in the mid-90s, but he was still in A-ball with below-average command," McDaniel writes. "After the trade, he switched to throwing primarily a sinker and tweaked the grip enough to get more sink and run along with getting the velo closer to his four-seamer; the sinker is now an above-average to plus pitch."
Rodriguez progressed a couple rungs of the minors after making his improvements, and he may get to the major leagues at some point this season.
"Rodriguez's changeup is average to above and he throws a roughly average slurve, sweeper and cutter, in that order of usage," McDaniel writes. "With two kinds of fastballs, Rodriguez has six average to above-average pitches, enough command to start, and just threw 150 innings last season, including a start in Triple-A."
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It'd certainly feel quite sweet for the Yankees if Rodriguez turns into a useful major league pitcher, especially if he can get them some key outs in Fenway Park some day.
For now, New York will continue to focus on developing Rodriguez into the best pitcher he can be.
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