Red Sox’ Shocking Offer Revealed For Twins’ Joe Ryan At Trade Deadline

After a disappointing — to say the least — trade deadline day, the Boston Red Sox and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow took a beating from fans and the media. One top MLB insider, Ken Rosenthal, on his Fair Territory podcast, slammed Boston’s efforts as an “epic fail.”

The Red Sox sought on Thursday to acquire the Minnesota Twins’ 29-year-old righty ace Joe Ryan, but ultimately Breslow’s attempt fell flat. Rosenthal then piled on, deriding the Red Sox executive’s efforts to deal for Ryan as “feeble.”

But were they?

Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic reported that the Red Sox were not willing to offer “an enticing enough package of their top-tier prospects” to Minnesota.

A new report by a longtime Red Sox insider, Rob Bradford of Boston radio station WEEI and his own Baseball Isn’t Boring podcast, would appear to directly contradict the previous reporting.

“There was also the rare willingness to include anybody and everybody from the Sox’s minor league system in the deals,” Bradford wrote, in a Saturday report for WEEI.com. “Payton Tolle. Jhostynxon Garcia. Franklin Arias. Two of the three, in different combinations, were offered up together as part of packages that also included members of the Sox’s Top 10 prospect list.”

Who are Tolle, Garcia, and Arias? Only the top three prospects in the Red Sox system — a system that Bleacher Report ranked seventh in the big leagues prior to the trade deadline (though it dropped to No. 10 after Thursday).

More MLB: Red Sox Whiff on Trade For 36-Year-Old Righty Who Was Drafted 3 Times

In addition to ranking Arias first, Garcia second and Tolle third in the Boston farm system, MLB Pipeline also ranks all three in the top 100 prospects league-wide.

Arias, a 19-year-old shortstop signed in 2023 out of Venezuela, is the No. 33 prospect in baseball, according to the Pipeline.

Garcia, who comes with the amusing nickname “The Password” in honor of his confusingly spelled given name, ranks No. 88. A power-hitting outfielder with 13 home runs and a .928 OPS in 205 at-bats for Triple-A Worcester, Garcia was a 2019 signing, also out of Venezuela.

Tolle just cracked the MLB Pipeline top 100 on July 19, at No. 100.

But in two weeks, the 22-year-old left-handed power pitcher has moved up to No. 92. Drafted in the second round, 50th overall, in 2024, the imposing Tolle who stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 250 pounds, has already struck out 31 in 23 innings after his promotion to the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs.

The former two-way player at Wichita State, who focused solely on pitching after a transfer to Texas Christian, dominated the High-A ranks to start the season, fanning 79 in just 44 2/3 innings for the Greenville Drive.

“In order to add impact players, particularly impact starting pitching, we had to take the position that we’d be willing to talk about anybody in our system, and we were,” Breslow said Saturday, as quoted by Conor Roche of Boston.com.

Breslow said that he would “strongly disagree” with Rosenthal’s description of his efforts to get Ryan as “feeble,” and if Bradford’s report that he was willing to part with two of the Red Sox’ best prospects — as well as others from the organization’s top 10 — is accurate, it is understandable why he would feel that way.

More MLB: Red Sox Drop Ball With Top Rumored Pitching Trade Target Going To AL East Rival