The Red Sox acquired catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia from the Rangers, tweets Dan Roche of WBZ TV. WEEI's Alex Speier tweets that the Red Sox are sending Roman Mendez, Chris McGuiness, a player to be named later, and cash to Texas in the deal. ESPN's Jayson Stark tweets that Boston will send $350K the Rangers' way.
The 25-year-old Saltalamacchia was hitting .244/.326/.445 with 11 homers in 270 plate appearances for the Rangers' Triple-A affiliate this season. He's a career .251/.313/.388 hitter in 874 big league plate appearances, and is coming back from a case of the yips, meaning he was having trouble making normal throws back to the pitcher. Salty is owed approximately $152K for the remainder of the season, and may qualify as a Super Two after the season. He was optioned to Triple-A by the Red Sox immediately after being acquired.
Mendez, 20, has a 6.56 ERA with 9.9 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in A-ball this season, though Baseball America considered him Boston's 23rd-best prospect before the season. They noted that he has one of the best arms in the system, touching 97 mph with his fastball.
McGuiness, 22, has hit .298/.416/.504 with 20 doubles and 12 homers in A-ball this season, playing first base exclusively. He was not among Boston's top 30 prospects before the season, though that could change after his big year.
Mike Axisa contributed to this post.
