Pirates Rumors: Pittsburgh talked Jared Jones trade with familiar partner at Winter Meetings

After reports emerged from the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings that the Pittsburgh Pirates were actively shopping starting pitcher Jared Jones on the trade market, plenty of rumors began to crop up as far as which teams were interested – and which would make good trade partners.

Some of those rumors began to crystallize when Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported earlier this week that the Boston Red Sox were one of the teams that discussed a possible trade for Jones with the Pirates at Winter Meetings.

It's unclear how serious those discussions were, and the Red Sox have since addressed their starting pitching need by trading for Garrett Crochet and signing Patrick Sandoval and and Walker Buehler. But it's possible that they could still be interested in acquiring Jones if the Pirates have, in fact, made him available.

Pirates Rumors: Pittsburgh talked Jared Jones trade with Red Sox at Winter Meetings

It's unclear how willing the Pirates would be to trade Jones now that they are already down a starter after shipping Luis Ortiz out to the Cleveland Guardians in the Spencer Horwitz trade. Even if they are willing to listen to offers for the 23-year-old coming off a strong rookie season, those offers would have to be pretty compelling.

In the case of the Red Sox, a potential offer for Jones would likely have to start with first baseman Triston Casas or at least one of the “big three” prospects (Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer or Kristian Campbell). If the cost-conscious Pirates were to lose a player with several years of team control in Jones, they would need to get at least one similarly controllable player in return.

It wouldn't be the first time the Pirates and Red Sox swapped young talents to address the specific needs of each team. At the July trade deadline, the teams exchanged former first-round picks in a prospect deal that sent right-handed pitcher Quinn Priester to Boston and infielder Nick Yorke to Pittsburgh. Perhaps a similar deal involving Jones and one of the Red Sox's talented young position players wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for either team.

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