The Boston Red Sox have completed their trade with the Royals and New York Mets that sent outfielder Andrew Benintendi to Kansas City back in February.
The Red Sox announced Friday they acquired minor league right-handed pitchers Luis De La Rosa and Grant Gambrell from the Royals, as well as minor league outfielder Freddy Valdez from the Mets. Those three were the players to be named later from the Feb. 10 trade.
Boston, you may recall, received outfielder Franchy Cordero from the Royals and minor league right-hander Josh Winckowski from the Mets at the time of the deal.
Anyway, here’s what you should know about the newly-added prospects:
Freddy Valdez
The 19-year-old Valdez is ranked by MLB.com as the Mets’ No. 14 prospect while Baseball America has him ranked No. 17 in the system. He was signed by the Mets out of the Dominican Republic in July 2018 and the right-handed hitter made his professional debut in 2019. He went on to be named Sterling Mets Dominican Summer League Player of the Year after appearing in 57 games with the Mets’ DSL club and in three games with the Gulf Coast League team. In those contests, Valdez batted batting .274 (63-for-230) with an .814 OPS. He recorded 16 doubles, three triples, six home runs, 39 RBIs while scoring 40 runs.
His MLB Pipeline scouting report noted Valdez’ above-average hand speed that can result in impressive exit velocities when he makes contact.
Luis De La Rosa
The 18-year-old De La Rosa was signed by the Royals out of the Dominican Republic in July 2018. The right-hander made his professional debut in 2019 with the Dominican Summer League Royals 1 and earned the club’s Pitcher of the Year award. During that season, De La Rosa appeared in 12 games (11 starts) and posted a 2.33 ERA with a .197 opponent batting average and 0.91 WHIP. He also recored 52 strikeouts, seven walks, and zero home runs allowed.
Grant Gambrell
The 23-year-old Gambrell was selected by the Royals in the third round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of Oregon State. Gambrell is 2-1 with a 4.37 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and .190 batting average against in High A this season. He also has compiled 18 strikeouts and seven walks in five starts. The California native graduated from Buchanan High School before going 11-4 with a 3.47 ERA in three years at Oregon State.
