The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline.Trade details: The Boston Red Sox acquire Cs Adley Rutschman and Jake Rogers and cash considerations from the Baltimore Orioles for C Carlos Narváez, RHPs Anthony Eyanson and RHP Kyson Witherspoon, OF Enddy Azocar and a PTBNL or cash considerationsThe Orioles and Red Sox swung big with a trade that sent three prospects, a back-up catcher and a PTBNL to Baltimore for Adley Rutschman, the former No. 1 prospect in baseball who was a five-win player in 2022-23 but hasn’t reached those levels since. They also received backup catcher Jake Rogers, who can fill in for Rutschman while he finishes his rehab from a wrist injury. When healthy, Rutschman will help boost the Red Sox, who weren’t getting much production behind the plate. The Orioles will shift to Samuel Basallo as their primary catcher while also restocking their system with two arms and a potential power bat.Rutschman’s time in Baltimore started with a bang and ended with an IL stint, a sadly frequent occurrence for the No. 1 pick in the 2019 draft. His rookie year in 2022 remains his best to date. He produced 5.4 WAR with a .254/.362/.445 line and excellent defense in 113 games, then nearly matched that in the next year, but it’s been downhill since 2024, with declining production and injuries interrupting his play the last two seasons.Even with everything that’s gone wrong, he is still an above-average regular when he does take the field, and if he just plays a full season in 2027 he could be one of the three best catchers in the league. In fact, by fWAR, he already is one: He’s behind only Dillon Dingler and Shea Langeliers, even though Rutschman has played in just 67 games. Boston gets him for the remainder of this year, which is an upgrade over their current catching situation once he returns, and all of 2027.A first-round pick in 2025 out of Oklahoma, Kyson Witherspoon’s first pro season has been a disaster, as the Red Sox overhauled his delivery, taking his short arm action and making it pretty long, enough so that he can’t repeat it yet. He was up to 99 mph in college and is still 94-96 now, with a curveball, slider, cutter and changeup, in roughly descending order of quality. The changeup seems to have been the most impacted by the delivery change, as he’s struggling to maintain his arm speed on all pitches, and in general is late getting out front to finish anything.It has been a challenging first season in pro ball for Witherspoon. (Scott Audette / MLB Photos via Getty Images)Witherspoon has a 4.78 ERA in High A this year with too many walks, too many homers allowed and a strikeout rate under 25 percent. I don’t know if the answer is to just have him go back to how he pitched in college, or stay the course and try some minor adjustments to help his timing, but this can’t be all there is here.Eyanson, a third-round pick last season out of LSU, opened some eyes when he showed up this spring hitting 99, as he wasn’t up in that rarefied air as an amateur, succeeding instead with several plus offspeed pitches to mitigate a fringy fastball. He hasn’t held that velocity, however, as he’s been more 90-95 since May and is back to relying on that hammer breaking ball to miss bats. Hitters still can’t touch him, though, and even in Double A he’s limited hitters to 28 hits across 48 innings, with a walk rate of 12.4 percent and strikeout rate of 32.3 percent.Eyanson is a starter, for sure, but getting the fastball back up a tick would make a huge difference in his ceiling. Regardless, the Orioles had no high-probability starter prospects in their system in June 2025. A little more than a year later, they now have at least five: Eyanson, Witherspoon, Joseph Dzierwa, JT Quinn and Caden Hunter.Azocar has been the big riser in the Red Sox’ system this year, hitting 18 homers between Low A and High A as a 19-year-old. He didn’t hit at all in Low A to finish the 2025 season, but dominated that level in a second go-round and has held his own in High A with a .279/.338/.547 line and a 25.1 percent strikeout rate so far. He has outstanding bat speed and is going to end up with easy plus power, but so far he’s mostly feasting on fastballs and really struggling to hit any kind of offspeed stuff. The Orioles have a lot of players with this general profile in their system but have not had success developing them.Narváez had a surprise breakout year for the Red Sox in 2025, producing 2.8 bWAR with a .241/.306/.419 line and strong defense, even finishing sixth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. He’s regressed to below replacement level this year, and is probably a backup in the long term. He’d be a great caddy as the Orioles try to ease Basallo into the everyday catcher’s job when Basallo returns from the IL, assuming that’s the plan to replace Rutschman. Basallo’s presence had to make this trade easier for Baltimore to consider, and they did get good value in the abstract while also filling some organizational needs by adding more starting pitching.