The switch from three teams on Tuesday that sent popular Red Sox defender Andrew Benintendi to the Royals included an unusual wrinkle: Boston acquired three players to be named later, along with defender Franchy Cordero and pitcher Josh Winckowski .
The Red Sox have yet to discover the specific identities of the players who are receiving the deal, said baseball director Chaim Bloom, but instead have devised some rules for how and when they will decide. Boston will acquire two more Kansas City players and one more from the Mets, who acquired the Royals’ field prospect Khalil Lee in the deal.
“We have structures in place with clubs about how and when we are going to do this,” said Bloom. “There are no names of the players that we are embarking on now.”
Although Bloom does not discuss specific structures, it is likely that the Red Sox and the other clubs have agreed to lists made up of a number of players that Boston can choose from, as well as a deadline for when decisions must be made. Delaying decisions about specific players will allow the Red Sox to have time to observe players from the Mets and Royals minor leagues this spring and summer, after not having a chance to see them play in 2020, when the league season minor has been canceled.
Bloom said it would “take a while” for players to be named and that a resolution should not be expected until the minor leagues start playing later this year.
“This happens from time to time, even when we are not in the middle of a global pandemic,” he said. “Having time to work on these things is useful. Certainly, with what we are going through, I think it is more useful and more critical for us. “
The players to be named later in this agreement can be significant. Although Cordero, who has 95 games in the major league, is the centerpiece, his duo and Winckowski don’t seem to be close to the value of Benintendi and the $ 2.8 million that the Red Sox sent him to Kansas City. The Mets player, who has acquired a legitimate perspective on Lee, is likely to be better than the Royals player. As the business is currently in place, Mets received a significantly better perspective than the one they gave up on, so it stands to reason that they will give up a good player once everything is over.
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