Red Sox trade away 3.14 ERA pitcher for 57-steal outfielder from Rockies originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Boston Red Sox pulled off an under-the-radar trade with the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday evening.
The move was done to line things up on each team’s respective 40-man roster, with the Red Sox getting rid of a guy off their 40 for a Colorado minor leaguer.
The terms, reported by MassLive:
- Red Sox get: OF Braiden Ward
- Rockies get: LHP Brennan Bernardino
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Bernardino is 33 years old but was really solid for Boston in 2025.
The 6-foot-4 southpaw had the lowest ERA of his MLB career, at 3.14. He threw in 55 games and struck out 43 guys in 51.2 innings pitched.
Bernardino all in all has a 3.47 ERA across four big leagues seasons, with 167 of his 169 appearances coming for Boston (and two for the Seattle Mariners).
The new guy to the Boston organization is Ward, a 5-foot-9 outfielder who originally was a 16th-round pick out of the University of Washington in 2021.
Ward turns 27 in January.
He split the 2025 season between Double-A and Triple-A. His most eye-catching stat was his combined 57 steals across the two levels.
Ward batted .290 with a combined .786 OPS.
He doesn’t have much pop. Of his 89 hits, 17 were doubles, four were triples and two were home runs.
But a player with speed like Ward will always have at least a chance of being useful. He’s not a bad pickup for Boston considering they had to somehow clear space on their 40-man roster.
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