The trade: Astros acquire C Christian Vazquez from the Red Sox for 2B/3B/LF Enmanuel Valdez and Wilyer Abreu.
For weeks, everyone has wondered whether the Astros would pursue Willson Contreras to upgrade their offense at catcher, where Martin Maldonado is a defensive stalwart known for his ability to work with a pitching staff -- but he's also hitting .173 with a .239 OBP. Contreras is a bat-first catcher, and bringing him in during the middle of the season was viewed as a risk, so the Astros instead acquired another defensive-minded backstop, but one with a better bat than Maldonado.
Here are the grades for both teams involved in the trade.
As good as the Astros have been this season, they entered Monday's game with 90 fewer runs scored than the Yankees, mostly due to a lack of production at first base, where Yuri Gurriel has had a down year, and at catcher, where they rank 27th in the majors in OPS. Maldonado and his backups have hit a combined .164/.232/.306. Overall, the Astros' 7-8-9 hitters rank 21st in the majors in OPS, so in adding Trey Mancini and now Vazquez, the Astros have improved the bottom of the lineup.
The Astros absolutely love Maldonado's preparation and game-calling, but Vazquez also comes with a strong defensive reputation and is hitting .282/.327/.432 with eight home runs. Those numbers are above his career norms, but not out of line with what's he done the past few seasons as his bat has improved with age. He's a solid contact hitter and has been durable, playing 138 games last season and 84 of Boston's 103 this season, but probably enters into some sort of time share with Maldonado.
You do worry about upsetting that important pitcher-catcher relationship -- but among Houston's starters, only Framber Valdez has worked almost exclusively with Maldonado: Valdez: 19 with Maldonado, 1 with Jason Castro.
Justin Verlander: 12 starts with Maldonado, 7 with Jason Castro
Luis Garcia: 14 with Maldonado, 4 with Castro
Jose Urquidy: 15 with Maldonado, 3 with Castro, 1 with Korey Lee
Cristian Javier: 9 with Maldonado, 4 with Castro, 2 with Lee
Jake Odorizzi: 5 with Maldonado, 4 with Lee, 3 with Castro
So we can guess Maldonado remains a personal catcher of sorts for Valdez while Vazquez will catch the majority of the other games.
Even though Vazquez had come to realize a trade was possible, it's still a shock to someone who was originally drafted by the Red Sox in 2008 and helped them win the 2018 World Series. He was actually on the field pregame with the Red Sox -- who are in Houston -- and slated to hit fifth in the lineup when he was called off and, according to reporters on site, looked "stunned," shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's a business" as a Red Sox PR official pulled him away. All he had to do was go over to the home team clubhouse -- after just going through the hitters meeting with the Red Sox.
In general, it looks like a good trade for the Astros, although not without some risk in breaking up the chemistry Maldonado has had with the pitching staff.
Grade: B
For the Red Sox, this is really a two-part deal as they also traded reliever Jake Diekman to the White Sox for catcher Reese McGuire, clearing a little payroll from the books (Diekman was owed $3.5 million in 2023, plus a $1 million buyout or $4 million in 2024) while acquiring a catcher to replace Vazquez. McGuire has hit .241/.289/.318 over 383 plate appearances the past two seasons with the Blue Jays and White Sox, with just one home run and not enough OBP to make up for the lack of power. Consider the final two months of this season essentially a Red Sox tryout for McGuire. They'll see if they like him enough to run with him next season or if they'll try to go another route.
As for the prospects acquired from Houston, Valdez's stat line is certainly interesting: .327/.410/.606 with 21 home runs between Double-A and Triple-A at 23 years old -- so there is some power here despite being listed at 5-foot-9. He has a 76-to-45 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 82 games, so he draws a few walks without an excessive strikeout rate. Baseball America, in its midseason update, had Valdez as Houston's No. 12 prospect (in what is generally viewed as a weak system). He's played second base, third base and a little left field, and in a best-case scenario he profiles as an offensive-minded second-base option if Xander Bogaerts leaves in free agency and the Red Sox have to move Trevor Story to shortstop, but his ultimate defensive position remains up in the air.
Abreu is a 23-year-old outfielder hitting .249/.399/.459 at Double-A with 15 home runs, 78 walks and 108 strikeouts. That's a lot of three true outcomes in his game, but he's also 23-for-24 stealing bases and is regarded as good enough defensively to handle center field. It's an interesting pair of prospects; certainly not high ceiling players, but both are close to major league ready and could profile as bench depth in 2023 and beyond. Given what the Red Sox have seen this year from the likes of Franchy Cordero, Jarren Durran and Jackie Bradley Jr., improving the bottom of the roster remains a clear priority.