Red Sox's big trade splash turns into injury scare

Boston's trade deadline got loud fast. On Saturday the Red Sox flipped left-hander Connelly Early to the Nationals for Curtis Mead, a 25-year-old infielder hitting.254/.352/.500 with 17 home runs in 87 games as Washington's everyday third baseman. The move was framed as Boston finally addressing a power shortage in a lineup that had otherwise ridden a 15-game winning streak on the back of its pitching. Losing Early stung some fans given how good he'd looked in his 21 big-league starts, and that mixed reaction showed up on the Barstool Baseball account within hours of the deal.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

The Boston Red Sox Try To Address Their Glaring Power Problem By Trading Connelly Early For Someone Named Curtis Mead @MikeMutnansky

There was also some early skepticism about whether Mead's Nationals numbers would translate to a new lineup, with one Barstool account posting video suggesting he'd have to eat his words fast. Nobody could've predicted just how fast the whole thing would get complicated.

Barstool Baseball

@StoolBaseball

Safe to say Curtis Mead is gonna have to walk this take back

Mead made his Boston debut against the Athletics and struck out looking in his first trip to the plate. Then, in the top of the 4th with Boston trailing 1-0, A's starter Jack Perkins hit him with a 94-mph fastball on the left wrist. Mead tried to play through it, but a trainer came out and walked him off the field before he could finish the game.

Barstool Gambling

@stoolgambling

Curtis Mead got hit on the hand by a pitch and was forced to leave the game It’s his first game with the Red Sox

Initial X-rays reportedly came back negative and there was some cautious optimism in the immediate aftermath. That didn't hold up. Follow-up testing found a fractured wrist, and Mead confirmed the diagnosis himself, with Boston moving to place him on the injured list days after acquiring him.

So the Red Sox traded a promising young starter to fix their power problem and got exactly one strikeout and one broken wrist in return before the new guy hit the IL. That's about as brutal a start as a debut can go, and it leaves Boston needing to figure out its infield fix all over again while Mead rehabs an injury he suffered in his very first game wearing the uniform.