Nearly three weeks after the Aug. 3 trade deadline, the Boston Red Sox are still getting mileage out of a move that barely registered next to the bigger headlines.
A lot of the attention has gone to the Red Sox dealing five players for Adley Rutschman, or sending Marcelo Mayer out for reliever Erik Miller. Even the Curtis Mead-Connelly Early swap has gotten more oxygen than it probably deserves, considering the two have combined for three innings played since the deal. But Boston may have found one of its quietest wins by bringing in Eli White from the Atlanta Braves.
Saturday night offered the best example yet.
White came off the bench in the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants and immediately changed the game. Facing left-hander Sam Hentges, he punched a ball up the middle that got just beyond a diving Osleivis Basabe and drove in Boston’s first run of the night.
From there, White kept the rally moving. He moved to third on Nick Sogard’s blast off the wall, then scored the winning run with a headfirst dive after Bryce Eldridge’s throw from first base pulled catcher Andrew Knizner off the plate.
Boston didn’t acquire White because he was going to solve the outfield. The Red Sox already had a crowded group out there, and they knew it would only get tighter once Roman Anthony returned from injury. They made the move because they believed White had a very specific kind of value, and that bet is already paying off.
That kind of player is hard to find. Around Major League Baseball, there aren’t many bench pieces who can really master a narrow role, especially when they aren’t known for hitting. White has looked like exactly that through his first 10 games with Boston.
In 22 plate appearances, he’s 6-for-21, with all six hits going for singles. He has three RBIs, and every one of them has come against lefties. He’s also already swiped one bag, and that number feels likely to grow.
If Boston needs a late at-bat against a lefty, followed by smart baserunning or solid defense in left field, White is the kind of option the Red Sox want available. It may be a rental, but it’s the sort of addition that can matter a lot in the right spot.
In Other News...
Braves First Round Pick Is Already Changing The Draft Debate
Carter Beck was the sort of first-round pick that invites instant second-guessing, especially when a club takes him 26th overall and the conversation starts before hes even settled into pro ball. Atlanta did the opposite of sitting still with him, moving him through Low-A Augusta and High-A Rome early in his first taste of the minors, and the early returns have been hard to ignore. In 15 games, Beck has hit .367/.424/.467 and already flashed the kind of bat-to-ball ability that can quiet a draft room in a hurry.
The bigger question now is less about whether Beck can hit and more about where the rest of his game goes from here. Scouts like the aggression he brings to the plate and the speed he can add on the bases, while also seeing room for growth in outfield defense and in the kind of power that tends to separate a promising prospect from a true middle-order threat. For a Braves system that leaned into upside on draft day, Beck is already making the argument that the original debate may have been the wrong one. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Top Prospect Found Perspective During A Night He Desperately Needed
The Columbus Clingstones turned one of their regular-season nights into something bigger with their annual CURE Childhood Cancer Night against Montgomery, pairing players and coaches with local pediatric cancer patients. For Braves top prospect Eric Hartman, the evening ended up carrying a different kind of weight too, because he found himself right in the middle of a memorable performance at the plate while also taking in the human side of the night around him.
Hartman launched his first Double-A home run and finished with three hits, a needed breakthrough for a player whose attention was split between baseball and perspective. He also spent time meeting the pediatric cancer patients and reflected on how much the experience meant to him, leaving the night as much about gratitude as production. [Read more 🡒]
Braves Deadline Approach Looks More Costly As Division Lead Slips
Atlanta went into the deadline looking to shore up the rotation, and it came away with just one major addition in Tyler Mahle. General manager Alex Anthopoulos said the club was not chasing one specific player so much as trying to improve the roster as a whole, a measured approach that made sense at the time with the Braves trying to balance present needs and long-term fit.
Now, with the NL East lead gone and the standings tightening, the decision looks much more consequential. The Braves have faced growing criticism for not being more aggressive, and the missed opportunity is harder to dismiss when the pitching help they wanted has not been enough to steady the stretch run. [Read more 🡒]