MacPherson: Sandoval-For-Shields Trade Wouldn't Make Red Sox Better

BOSTON (CBS) -- Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal joined Toucher & Rich to discuss the rumors swirling around a possible Pablo Sandoval-for-James Shields trade between the Red Sox and San Diego Padres.

While many would be excited just to ship Sandoval out of Boston, MacPherson doesn't see a Sandoval-Shields swap as a viable option. In his mind, the trade doesn't make sense because it wouldn't make the Red Sox a better team right now.

The first problem with the hypothetical trade for MacPherson is that in ditching Sandoval, Boston would be forced to eat a considerable amount of cash.

"Hypothetically, the Red Sox would certainly have to eat some money," noted MacPherson. "Sandoval's owed more money. They might even have to eat more money on top of that because Shields is probably a more valuable player over the next three years than Sandoval is, so it's hard to see how that sort of deal really makes the Red Sox better."

Both Sandoval and Shields regressed statistically last season. MacPherson cited the 34-year-old Shields's declining numbers in San Diego as a reason the trade wouldn't even necessarily make the rotation better in 2016.

"It's kind of a toss-up. Certainly, Shields wasn't good," said MacPherson. "He gave up 33 homers last year in San Diego, which was right around the same number as Porcello gave up."

Despite a back-end rotation of Porcello and Steven Wright, MacPherson still thinks that Shields wouldn't be an upgrade if added to the Red Sox rotation.

"It's not a trade that makes a whole lot of sense to me, that would make the Red Sox a better team right now, to swap out Shields for anyone in that rotation."

Lastly, MacPherson believes that the trade would force the Red Sox to rely too heavily upon the unproven Travis Shaw.

"You're putting all your eggs in that Travis Shaw basket. You still don't really know what he is, both offensively or defensively," said MacPherson.

"We should know Spring Training doesn't tell us very much. It seems to make sense to not just entrust the job to Travis Shaw right now based on what we've seen in spring."

What do you think? Does Sandoval-for-Shields make sense for the Red Sox?