Adley Rutschman trade grades for stunning Red Sox-Orioles blockbuster before deadline

The Boston Red Sox have brought themselves back from the dead after a slow start to the 2026 MLB season, and they’re right back in the thick of the postseason race. To strengthen the squad, the Red Sox made one of the biggest deals of the deadline, swinging a trade for Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman, a known New York Yankees target, for a four-prospect package that is turning heads.

In trading for Rutschman, one of the Orioles’ homegrown talents, the Red Sox traded away three prospects in Anthony Eyanson, Enddy Azocar, and Kyson Witherspoon, all of whom are highly-regarded in talent evaluation circles, as well as big-league catcher Carlos Narvaez, who’s struggled thus far in 2026. Boston also got backup catcher Jake Rogers and gave up a player to be named later in the deal as well.

Suffice to say, Boston paid a high price to acquire Rutschman, perhaps to prevent the Yankees from acquiring him instead. But is acquiring Rutschman well worth the risk for the Red Sox? Or did the Orioles make out like a bandit with the haul they received for their talented, but flawed, catcher?

Here are trade grades for the Red Sox and Orioles for the blockbuster trade they completed.

Red Sox believe in Adley Rutschman’s potential bounceback

When Rutschman came up to the big leagues in 2022, the Orioles got an immediate superstar. Rutschman was only 24 in his rookie campaign, and he had already tallied a 5.6 fWAR season, which was buoyed by elite hitting for a catcher (.807 OPS) paired with elite defense. This was not a fluke, as Rutschman recorded 5.5 fWAR in his sophomore campaign, and his numbers from his stellar rookie season mostly held.

But in Year 3, that’s when Rutschman began to decline. In 2025, that’s when he hit rock bottom, as he posted a below-average wRC+ (93) and his defense continued to fall off. His oblique bothered him for most of last season, so there was at least an explanation for his struggles, and 2026 represented a bit of a bounce-back from the 28-year-old.

In 67 games thus far this season, Rutschman has eight home runs and 47 runs batted in on an OPS of .764. His defensive metrics have been much kinder to him this year. In fact, he’s on pace for over 4 fWAR this season, so while he hasn’t been back to his rookie/sophomore self on the plate, he has bounced back enough in every other facet of the game that there’s no surprise that Boston paid a premium to get him.

The problem, of course, is that he’s currently on the injured list with a wrist injury. He was placed on the 10-day injured list on the 20th of July, and it’s not quite clear when he’ll be debuting for Boston.

Rutschman, without a doubt, is going to be a huge upgrade over Connor Wong and Narvaez, the Red Sox’s two primary catchers in 2026. He’s a much better hitter than both of them, and he’s Yadier Molina and Pudge Rodriguez compared to those two behind the dish.

But Boston traded away a ton of prospect capital, including Eyanson, who is one of the best prospects in MLB and one who currently ranks 49th in MLB.com’s top 100. Azocar and Witherspoon are no slouches, either. Both of them are ranked within the top 10 in the Orioles’ system.

Rutschman is under team control until 2027, so the Red Sox have that going for them. But they are certainly betting that he manages to stay healthy and that he is now consistently back to a 4 to 5 fWAR level. Those are no sure things. Nonetheless, there’s no doubting that the big-league roster got much better, but at a steep cost.

Grade: C+

Orioles get massive haul for Adley Rutschman

It must have been difficult for the Orioles to trade Rutschman away, one of the franchise cornerstones responsible for their turnaround in the early 2020s. But Baltimore did well to make the most of a difficult situation.

The Orioles may be just 2.5 games back of a Wild Card spot, but Rutschman’s value was only depreciating as he got closer to free agency, and Baltimore would have faced stiff competition had they kept him and believed they could re-sign him.

Pulling the trigger on a trade with such curious timing can be a bit infuriating for fans, but this was all about maximizing value — especially when they have Samuel Basallo ready to take on the everyday catcher role anyway (as soon as he returns from injury).

And the Orioles did maximize their return for Rutschman, who is currently on the injured list. They got an elite pitching prospect in Eyanson, who is lighting everyone up in the minors to the tune of a 1.32 ERA in 68.1 innings (16 appearances, 15 starts) while striking out 94. His slider is nasty, and his fastball has only been improving. If this keeps up, he could even become a front of the rotation starter — that’s how good he is.

Azocar is hitting for an .881 OPS in the minors in 2026. Witherspoon was the Red Sox’s 2025 first-round pick (15th overall). This was a massive haul for the Orioles no matter how one slices it. In fact, they got more for Rutschman than the Detroit Tigers did for Tarik Skubal.

This weakens the Orioles’ big-league squad for the rest of 2026, that’s for sure. But they just set themselves up nicely for the future with this massive blockbuster.

Grade: A+