The Boston Red Sox continued their roster tinkering when they traded their fourth rated prospect Anderson Espinosa for lefty Drew Pomeranz. The deal marks for the fourth trade the Red Sox have made in the last two weeks. They’ve also acquired Aaron Hill and Michael Martinez to bolster their infield depth and Brad Ziegler to bolster their bullpen depth.

Why the Red Sox Make this deal?

Pomeranz was one of the best starters on the trade market in a year where there weren’t a lot of starters available via trade. The Red Sox have a good top three going into the trade with David Price, Steven Wright, and Rick Porcello. Of course, Price has had a down year and Wright is in his first full season as a starter. Clay Buchholz has been inconsistent all season long and Eduardo Rodriguez has been ineffective since coming off of the disabled list. You could say they were desperate for decent starting pitching.

His 8-7 record this season really doesn’t tell the whole story. He made the all-star team with a sparkling 2.47 ERA in 102 innings. Every team would love to add that kind of pitcher to their rotation. You could easily say their playoff rotation is now intact. Unfortunately, some of the more advanced numbers are not so complimentary of Pomeranz. For one, he has a .240 BABIP against so far this season and he has stranded a near career high 80.8 percent of his runners this season. Those two statistics have combined to give him a 3.66 xFIP and 3.75 SIERA this season.

For those that are unfamiliar with those numbers, they are essentially the best estimates we have of how he would be doing if everything happening behind him were equal. This is definitely important because he is moving to a new ballpark with a new defense behind him. The good news is that his home and away splits are nearly identical, but it is clear that the Red Sox are not getting an ace pitcher and fantasy owners shouldn’t necessarily expect great things with this move.

Why the Padres make this deal?

Espinoza immediately becomes the Padres number one prospect according to MLB.com. According to scouts, he has a plus plus fastball to go along with a good curveball and changeup. The best part of the whole deal is that he is still only 18 years old and is already playing full season ball this season (5-8, 4.38 ERA, 76 INN, 72/27 SO/BB). The numbers may not look tremendous, but we have to remember that most of the players in the league are a couple of years older than he is.

His fastball has reached 100 MPH on the gun on occasion. At this early stage, it isn’t known whether he will stick as a starter or become a lockdown reliever at the end of the game, but either way the Padres get a ton of value for a guy that was probably pitching over his head. This doesn’t even mention the fact that the Padres got Pomeranz for Yonder Alonso. Alonso was a non-tender candidate waiting to happen and they essentially were able to flip him for half a season of Pomeranz and their now top prospect in the system.

What this deal means for you

This deal is a mixed bag for Pomeranz owners. Clearly, switching to the best offensive team in baseball makes it much more likely that he will get good run support from here on out. Unfortunately, moving to the AL East will also likely see his numbers move up. The xFIP and SIERA ERA projections are probably more in line with the kind of pitcher he will be from here on out.