Sam Kennedy talks Red Sox' approach to trade deadline
Last year around this time, the trade that sent Hunter Renfroe to Milwaukee and brought Jackie Bradley Jr. back to Boston looked like an unmitigated disaster for Chaim Bloom and the Red Sox.
Bradley was struggling mightily en route to being released by the Red Sox in early August. Renfroe was on his way to a 29-homer season with rate stats (.255 batting average, .807 OPS) that mirrored his solid 2021 season in Boston.
Bradley was not the only piece the Red Sox got in that December 2021 trade, though. There were also two prospects: Alex Binelas and David Hamilton. The 23-year-old Binelas is currently with Double-A Portland, trying to improve his offensive game. It remains to be seen if he’ll eventually make it to the majors.
Hamilton, however, has made it, making his big-league debut as a pinch-runner on Wednesday before getting his first start on Thursday. After seeing the impact the 25-year-old shortstop made in Friday’s 3-1 win over the Chicago White Sox, it might be time to start reassessing that Renfroe-Bradley deal, because the Red Sox just might have something in Hamilton.
At the very least, the one thing they definitely have with him is speed. And lots of it. Hamilton stole 70 bases on 78 attempts in Portland last season, a club record. He had 27 steals on 33 attempts through 52 games with Triple-A Worcester this season. He stole a base and scored a run in that pinch-running debut on Wednesday.
On Friday, he wreaked more havoc on the basepaths. After falling behind 0-2 in his first time up in the top of the third, Hamilton managed to work a walk. Predictably, he then stole second. White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito was clearly worried he would also steal third, twice turning around to try to pick him off at second. The second throw got past second baseman Tim Anderson, and as it rolled into center field Hamilton took off, wheeling right around third and scoring standing up to give Boston a 1-0 lead.
Hamilton’s running makes him dangerous, and intriguing. But what will ultimately determine whether he sticks in the majors or not is his hitting and fielding.
Hamilton is getting a chance right now because the Red Sox are in desperate need of a shortstop, with Pablo Reyes hitting the 10-day injured list with an abdominal strain earlier Friday, Yu Chang still on the IL with a hamate fracture, and Kiké Hernandez not up to the task defensively.
The results in the field were mixed Friday night. In the bottom of the first, Hamilton made a nice play to close quickly on a slow-rolling grounder and throw out Andrew Benintendi at first. In the bottom of the seventh, he committed his first big-league error, bobbling a hard grounder off the bat of Jake Burger before throwing off line. Fielding has been a question mark for Hamilton throughout his development, and will need to be solidified if the Red Sox are going to trust him to start even for a week or two.
At the plate, Hamilton struck out in his other two plate appearances. He’s now 1-for-5 with a walk since getting called up, which is obviously a very small sample size. In Worcester, Hamilton was showing signs of clear offensive improvement this season. After hitting 12 home runs in 119 games in Portland last season, he already had 11 through 52 Triple-A games. His OPS jumped from .740 in 2022 to .825 this year.
How long Hamilton stays with Boston right now and how much he can truly help the Red Sox this season remains to be seen. The health of Reyes and Chang will factor into that, and the eventual return of Trevor Story looms further down the road.
But Hamilton certainly has an opportunity to show what he can do, and that speed alone has to make it tempting to keep him around. If he can keep impacting games the way he did Friday night, that Renfroe-Bradley trade may end up not looking so disastrous after all. (Renfroe, by the way, is onto another new team with the Los Angeles Angels and is currently having a 0.0 WAR season, according to Baseball-Reference.)
In the here and now, though, Hamilton was happy just to celebrate being part of his major-league win.
“I feel great. To be a part of my first win as a Red Sox, it feels amazing,” he told WEEI’s Will Fleming and Rob Bradford after the game.