{"id":15226257,"date":"2026-07-26T04:29:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T08:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/red-sox-trade-early-to-nationals-for-mead\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T05:33:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T09:33:28","slug":"red-sox-trade-early-to-nationals-for-mead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/red-sox-trade-early-to-nationals-for-mead\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox trade Early to Nationals for Mead"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Boston Red Sox traded left-hander Connelly Early<\/a> to the Washington Nationals for infielder Curtis Mead<\/a>, the teams announced.<\/p>\n

Early posted a 3.44 ERA and 9.1 K\/9 in 17 starts with the Red Sox before he was placed on the injured list with posterior elbow inflammation on July 1. <\/p>\n

When healthy, the 24-year-old will provide the Nationals with a young, controllable starter for their rotation who has connections to the franchise’s president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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Early, who was drafted by Paul Toboni when he was with the Red Sox, is under team control through 2031. https:\/\/t.co\/T9Hl2m8PJv<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 26, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, Mead is in the midst of a career year, slashing .256\/.351\/.505 with 17 home runs and 48 RBIs in 86 games. His 135 wRC+ is tied for 20th in the majors among players with at least 300 plate appearances, while his .505 slugging percentage ranked fourth on the Nationals.<\/p>\n

The right-handed hitting Mead could provide some pop from that side of the plate to a Red Sox team that sits 29th in homers and ranks 22nd in both isolated power and slugging percentage.<\/p>\n

Boston will work through where Mead fits in the club’s infield mix, according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo<\/a>. The 25-year-old Australian has mostly played third base this season, but also has experience at first and second.<\/p>\n

The Nationals acquired Mead from the White Sox in March for minor-league pitcher Boston Smith. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright © 2026 Score Media Ventures Inc. All rights reserved. Certain content reproduced under license.<\/em><\/small><\/p>\n

Source: Sports Baseball \u2013 The Score<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Boston Red Sox traded left-hander Connelly Early to the Washington Nationals for infielder Curtis Mead, the teams announced.Early posted a 3.44 ERA and 9.1 K\/9 in 17 starts with the Red Sox before he was placed on the injured\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15226259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15226257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baseball"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538.jpg",1080,810,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-620x465.jpg",620,465,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-768x576.jpg",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-940x705.jpg",940,705,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538.jpg",1080,810,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538.jpg",1080,810,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-998x665.jpg",998,665,true],"ignition_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-670x446.jpg",670,446,true],"ignition_item_lg":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538.jpg",1080,810,false],"ignition_article_media":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-510x510.jpg",510,510,true],"ignition_minicart_item":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"profile_24":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-24x24.jpg",24,24,true],"profile_48":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-48x48.jpg",48,48,true],"profile_96":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-96x96.jpg",96,96,true],"profile_150":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"profile_300":["https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/15226257-w1080xh810_gettyimages-2284090538-300x300.jpg",300,300,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"news.iNthacity","author_link":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/author\/atombo\/"},"category_info":"Baseball<\/a>","tag_info":"Baseball","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15226257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15226258,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15226257\/revisions\/15226258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15226259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15226257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15226257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inthacity.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15226257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}