Jake Bennett

In a rare type of transaction, the Nationals and Red Sox have agreed to swap pitching prospects. The clubs announced a one-for-one deal that sends righty Luis Perales to Washington and southpaw Jake Bennett to Boston. Neither player has made his MLB debut but both are on the 40-man roster.

It’s the kind of trade that fans often like to project but which almost never happens in practice. Neither Bennett nor Perales is a top-tier prospect, but they each ranked among the top 10 talents in their respective organizations at Baseball America. Teams tend to value their own prospects more highly than those in other systems. That’s only natural, as they liked the player enough to acquire them in the first place and have been instrumental in their development.

That makes it difficult for teams to align on straight prospect for prospect deals — at least ones that aren’t largely motivated by roster considerations. This one was driven by a regime change in Washington. The Nationals hired former Red Sox assistant general manager Paul Toboni as their president of baseball operations. He has hired a handful of former Boston staffers in front office and player development roles. They evidently liked Perales enough to make him a priority.

Perales is a 22-year-old who signed with the Sox out of Venezuela. He has shown huge strikeout stuff with very concerning command. The Sox added him to their 40-man roster over the 2023-24 offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Perales blew out seven starts into the following season and underwent Tommy John surgery. He missed almost all of 2025 rehabbing, only returning for three short relief appearances in the final week. Those included his first two appearances in Triple-A, where he was back to pumping a 99 MPH fastball with a low-90s cutter and a mid-80s changeup.

Baseball America’s scouting report understandably lauds the fastball. They also grade the cutter as a plus pitch but note that he’ll need to develop an offspeed pitch and dramatically improve his control if he’s to stick as a starter. While there’s a decent chance he ends up in short relief down the line, the Nationals don’t need to hurry that. They can option him to Double-A or Triple-A as a starter or multi-inning reliever as they monitor his innings in his first full season back from the surgery.

Bennett, 25, is a 6’6″ lefty who was added to Washington’s 40-man roster last month. They needed to keep him out of this winter’s Rule 5 draft. As with Perales, he has been set back by a Tommy John procedure. His surgery came after the 2023 campaign and wiped out his entire ’24 season. The Oklahoma University product got back on the mound this past May. He combined for 19 appearances between three levels up to Double-A. Bennett turned in a 2.27 earned run average across 75 1/3 innings. He recorded a slightly below-average 21.5% strikeout rate but kept his walks to a tidy 6.4% clip.

BA credits Bennett with a plus changeup as the only standout offering in a six-pitch arsenal. He has plus control and the size to generate good extension. Bennett’s fastball only sits around 92-93 MPH on average. He’s unlikely to miss a ton of bats unless the Sox can coax more velocity out of him, but he’s a much safer bet than Perales to stick in a rotation. Bennett should reach Triple-A at some point next season and has a chance to debut before the end of the year, though that’d probably take a number of injuries to starters ahead of him on the depth chart.

The Red Sox opt for the more stable back-end starter profile while the Nationals shoot for the risk-reward play. Bennett has a trio of minor league option years. Perales is headed into his third option year but is likely to be eligible for a fourth option in 2027 because of his limited professional workload.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported the trade. Respective images courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Jaylynn Nash, Imagn Images.