BOSTON — Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom continued his quest to make his team stronger up the middle by acquiring talented but oft-injured infielder Adalberto Mondesi in a trade with the Royals on Tuesday.
In exchange, the Red Sox sent lefty reliever Josh Taylor — also a player with a history of injury issues — to Kansas City. The Red Sox will also get a player to be named or cash considerations as part of the exchange.
In Mondesi, the Red Sox get a player who led the Majors in triples (10) in 2019 and stolen bases (24) in ’20 but hasn’t been on the field much the past two seasons. With rule changes coming into play this season that should increase stolen bases, a player like Mondesi figures to be more valuable if he can stay healthy.
“In terms of the talent, the athleticism he has, it’s really been top of the scale of anyone who plays big league baseball,” said Bloom. “Obviously he’s had a tough time over the years with injuries.”
Mondesi tore his left ACL on April 26, 2022, which ended his season. Bloom said that Mondesi will fly from the Dominican Republic to Fort Myers, Fla., later this week to continue his rehab under the watch of Boston’s medical staff.
“Our expectation is that he may be a little delayed to start the season, but Opening Day is still a possibility. And with an athlete like this, I wouldn’t rule it out,” said Bloom.
Bloom said that is still the plan, especially as Mondesi battles back from his latest injury.
“We really liked the upside of this opportunity, thought it made sense,” said Bloom. “Whether he’s on time or not, we’re expecting him to contribute for the bulk of the year. But as far as how we look at our shortstop situation, it doesn’t change anything about where we’re headed and the opportunity in front of Kiké.
“When Adalberto is back, we know given his track record — I don’t think we want to put too much on him — he’ll be part of the mix. We’ll bring him along the right way. We’ll take care of him, and him being part of the mix will make it easier to take care of everybody.”
Christian Arroyo will also be a key part of Boston’s middle-infield mix, and Bloom didn’t rule out the Red Sox adding more depth before Spring Training.
In his career, Mondesi has started 241 games at short, 64 games at second and 20 at third base. Though Hernández has made only 64 starts at short compared to 187 at second, Bloom recently said that the veteran is a plus defender wherever he plays….
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