BOSTON – It’s no secret the Red Sox have been looking to add a right-handed bat, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow secured one with more than a week to spare before the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, acquiring infielder Curtis Mead from the Nationals for rookie lefty Connelly Early.
While Mead’s bat was the main drawing card for Breslow, his defensive versatility is another plus.
He has played third base, first and second this season, slashing .254/.352/.500 with 17 doubles, 17 homers and 48 RBIs in 87 games.
TRADE DETAILS
Red Sox receive: INF Curtis Mead
Nationals receive: LHP Connelly Early
Mead, 25, isn’t eligible for free agency until 2031. The Nats gain similar club control with Early, who can be a free agent in ‘32.
Breslow struck the deal with an executive he has a strong relationship with in Nats president of baseball operations Paul Toboni, who was the assistant GM for the Sox before going to Washington after the ’25 season.
Per Baseball Savant, Mead's xwOBA of .359 entering play on Saturday ranked in the 85th percentile of all big league hitters.
The Red Sox have mainstays at the corner infield spots in first baseman Willson Contreras and Caleb Durbin.
Second base and designated hitter are two spots where the Sox have lacked production for much of the season, so Mead could fit in nicely there. Given that he has started 41 games at third, one at second and 19 at first this season, one option the Red Sox could pursue would be to move Durbin to second, where he has played in the past.
However, Durbin has been one of the top-rated defenders at the hot corner in the AL this season, so the Red Sox might be hesitant to move him.
It was somewhat surprising the Sox parted with Early, who was unflappable when he was called up for his debut in the middle of a pennant race last season, posting a 2.33 ERA in four starts.
The 24-year-old won the final spot in the rotation coming out of Spring Training and was a key member of one of the strongest rotations in baseball, going 7-5 with a 3.44 ERA and 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings in 17 starts before going on the 15-day IL on July 1 with left shoulder inflammation.
The night before that, he sustained the injury after throwing four shutout innings against his new team – the Nationals.
It shouldn’t be long before the Nats can slide Early into their rotation. He threw a one-inning bullpen session at Fenway on Friday and was scheduled for two innings off the mound by mid-week.
But the Red Sox are deeper with pitching than offense, so they dealt from an area of strength to bolster the lineup, which has been better during the team’s recently torrid run.
However, even with their recent surge, which includes a 21-4 record since June 25, the Sox are 29th in the Majors with 98 homers.
Contreras is the only Boston player who has more homers (22) than Mead this season.
This is the third trade involving Mead, who was once dealt straight up to the Rays for current Phillies ace Cristopher Sánchez.
Mead, who is from Australia, was signed by the Phillies as an international free agent in 2018 and made his MLB debut with the Rays in ’23.
It wasn’t until ’25 that Mead got more than 132 plate appearances in the Majors, and he struggled to make an impact, slashing .233/.291/.321 with three homers and 19 RBIs over 264 plate appearances in a season split between the Rays and White Sox.
But it was just after Opening Day this year that Mead got the break that keyed his turnaround, as he was dealt from the White Sox to the Nats on March 28.
Mead quickly became a favorite of Nats manager Blake Butera, and has turned into a mainstay for one of the teams with the top offenses in baseball, playing in 86 games for the Nats and producing a 2.0 bWAR.
“He was always really mature from a pretty young age,” Butera, who worked with Mead in the Rays farm system, said on June 29. “I thought he saw the game really well, understood the game pretty well. Then, obviously, the talent. He was hitting the ball really hard at such a young age, and he had the ability to drive the ball to all fields when he was just 19, 20, 21 years old.
“He got a shot in the big leagues. Playing time was pretty sporadic, which is never easy to do. And then we had a chance to acquire him. [We] thought there was some runway for him here and just believed in his abilities, believed in who he is as a person, and thought that if we could get him here in a pretty controlled or comfortable environment that he would thrive.”
The Red Sox get Mead at a time he’s been swinging a hot bat. In 16 games this month, Mead is slashing .367/.465/.650 with six doubles, three homers and nine RBIs.