{"id":19786,"date":"2026-07-27T08:07:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19786"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:07:40","slug":"mead-for-early-love-this-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=19786","title":{"rendered":"Mead for Early &#8212; Love this Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Early-Connell-boston-2026.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"599\" height=\"399\" src=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Early-Connell-boston-2026.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19787\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Early-Connell-boston-2026.jpg 599w, https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Early-Connell-boston-2026-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Connell Early joins the Nationals in trade for Mead.  Photo via MLB.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Busy weekend, so I&#8217;m just commenting now on the unexpected trade the team made over the weekend.  I posted an opinion piece saying we should start moving players despite our Wild Card position &#8230; but I wasn&#8217;t expecting THIS move:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Nats send 3B\/1B <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/meadcu01.shtml\">Curtis Mead<\/a> to Boston<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Boston sends us LHP Starter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/earlyco01.shtml\">Connell Early<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ok first off, I love this trade.  This is the epitome of a team selling high on a player in Mead, selling from a position of strength, using that strength to acquire in an area of weakness, and demonstrating how to move players around well.  That&#8217;s how you build winners, and is something we&#8217;ve talked about recently with all our corner OF depth in the minors.  Trade those guys if they&#8217;re blocked, get something we need.  Well, that&#8217;s what we just did.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team acquired Curtis Mead at the end of spring training after the White Sox DFA&#8217;d him, flipping 2025 6th round Senior Sign Boston Smith to acquire him.  Mead had been a disappointment to that point, with years of OPS+ figures in the 60-80 range.  Chicago probably thought they were fleecing US in March.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mead rewarded the team with a 133 OPS+ figure, hitting well enough to enable the team to send House down and feature in the middle of our order for much of this season.  To say this Mead production has come out of nowhere is an understatement; he was literally DFA&#8217;d at the end of spring.  We traded a guy who we gave a $50k draft bonus to in order to acquire him.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Yes, I&#8217;m aware <a href=\"https:\/\/www.milb.com\/player\/boston-smith-695722\">Smith is crushing the ball in AA<\/a> for the White Sox; but he was still a 6th round throw-away draft pick; anything the White Sox get out of him is found gold as well.  Also, if Smith was that big of a potential prospect coming out of college, not only would he have been drafted in 2024 as a junior, but he&#8217;d have been at a better school via the transfer portal.  I think his production may be smoke and mirrors, and if he even turns into a backup MLB catcher I&#8217;ll be surprised).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, the return is something the Nats desperately need, and which we&#8217;ve desperately struggled to consistently develop for a decade: a reliable starting pitcher.  Well, at least he looks reliable while healthy, giving the Red Sox 17 starts this year with a 3.44 ERA, a 1.2 whip and perhaps a little concerning 4.62 FIP.  Nonetheless, his 119 ERA+ is exactly equal to what Cavalli has done for us this year to this point.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Early is a local kid: went to James River HS in Midlothian (which i&#8217;ve driven past 100 times in my time living here), then to UVA where he seems to have avoided the UVA mechanics issues that plague their grads.  He was a 2023 5th rounder who was basically Boston&#8217;s 3rd starter this year.  He&#8217;s in his first arb season, and thus is controlled through 2031.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In essence, we&#8217;ve now turned a 6th round senior sign into a #3 starter.  Even saying that we&#8217;ve turned a March DFA acquisition into a #3 starter is big enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Worst case scenarios: Early is on the DL right now with &#8220;elbow soreness,&#8221; which probably greased the skids on this trade.  Boston has gotten themselves back into the playoff chase, and they can&#8217;t &#8220;wait&#8221; for a starter to return from injury, so might as well flip him for an area of need.  If Early is out for the rest of the season, or needs TJ?  Well, that&#8217;d be a tough break.  If Early reverts to his FIP and is more of a 5th starter than a 3rd starter?  Still a good trade.  If Mead continues to hit this way for the coming years and becomes a cornerstone of the Boston offense, we&#8217;ll have to hope that House lives up to his advance billing and replaces that offense.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Busy weekend, so I&#8217;m just commenting now on the unexpected trade the team made over the weekend. I posted an opinion piece saying we should start moving players despite our Wild Card position &#8230; but I wasn&#8217;t expecting THIS move: Ok first off, I love this trade. This is the epitome of a team selling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natsgeneral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19788,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19786\/revisions\/19788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}