The Boston Red Sox have made some notably infamous trades over their 125-year history, most notorious of all the 1920 deal that sent a 24-year-old pitcher and outfielder named George Herman “Babe” Ruth to the New York Yankees for nothing but cash in a catastrophic move that changed the course of baseball history.
Then there was the 1972 trade that brought mediocre, 32-year-old first baseman Danny Cater from the Yankees to Boston. In exchange the Red Sox shipped out 26-year-old relief pitcher Albert “Sparky” Lyle — who became the Yankees closer, immediately leading the American League in saves (35), then again in 1976 (23) while helping to pitch the Yankees to two World Series championships in 1977 and 1978. Lyle even won the AL Cy Young Award in 1977, only the second relief pitcher to win the honor.
In 1990, the Red Sox traded 22-year-old prospect Jeff Bagwell to the Houston Astros at the trade deadline for right-handed reliever Larry Andersen. Bagwell went on to a Hall of Fame career. Anderson pitched 22 innings over 15 games for the Red Sox, who then let him go to free agency after the 1990 season, and he signed with the San Diego Padres.
But for the current generation of Red Sox fans, no trade stings like the Feb. 12, 2020, deal that sent outfielder Mookie Betts — who won the AL MVP and led the Red Sox to a World Series title in 2018 — to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Starting pitcher David Price also went to the Dodgers in the deal.
In return the Red Sox received three players. One, outfielder Alex Verdugo was released by the Atlanta Braves in July and has been without a team ever since. Another, infielder Jeter Downs, appeared in 14 games for the Red Sox in 2022 and now plays for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan’s Pacific League.
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Finally, the Red Sox obtained catcher Connor Wong.
Almost six years after the trade, Wong stood as the only player remaining with Boston from the Betts trade. But on Friday, the deadline day for teams to formally inform players who are still under team control whether or not they will be offered new contracts, the Red Sox would face a decision on whether they wanted to keep Wong for at least one more season.
The answer was clearly yes, because Boston did not wait until Friday to make a decision on Wong’s future with the team. On Thursday the Red Sox announced that they had signed Wong to a one-year contract.
According to Red Sox beat reporter Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the Red Sox signed Wong to a deal that will pay him $1.4 million, with opportunity to earn another $75,000 in incentive bonuses. That represents a substantial raise over the $790,000 he earned this season, according to Spotrac.
But the sum is slightly less than the $1.7 million he was projected to earn by the mathematical formula developed by MLB Trade Rumors.
Wong underwent surgery on his right hand Oct. 9. The hand injury was clearly a drag on his performance this season, when the 29-year-old drafted in the 2017 third round by the Dodgers managed only a .500 OPS without a single home run and only 32 hits in 168 at-bats.
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