The Boston Red Sox have made a few trades with the Los Angeles Dodgers in recent years. None of them have worked out very well for Boston. Most notoriously, on February 10, 2020, the Red Sox sent 2018 American League MVP Mookie Betts to Los Angeles for prospects Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs and Connor Wong.
Only Wong is still on the Red Sox roster, or even in the major leagues.
In 2023, the Red Sox dealt former Dodger Kiké Hernández back to his previous club for minor league pitchers Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman. Robertson has pitched for five other organizations since, throwing just 35 2/3 big league innings, and is now a free agent. Hagenman made his MLB debut this season — with the New York Mets.
More Unsuccessful Dodger Deals
This year, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow traded outfield prospects James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard to the Dodgers for starting right-hander Dustin May, who missed the tail end of the season with an injury, then declared free agency and signed with the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tibbs is now the No. 8 ranked prospect in the Dodgers’ system, according to MLB Pipeline. Ehrhard is ranked 27th.
Now, the Red Sox have dipped into the pool of former Los Angeles prospects once again, though this time without giving up anything, going the free agent route to land a left-handed pitcher who spent six seasons on the Dodgers’ farm.
Alec Gamboa Arrives Via Korean Baseball Organization
The Dodgers drafted Alec Gamboa out of Fresno City College in California back in 2019, in the ninth round. When he started his pro career in the Arizona Complex League, a rookie-level circuit, one commentator — Jason Pennini of Baseball Census — wrote that Gamboa “dominated.”
“The change and curve flashed 55, and Gamboa has solid command of both pitches. I love his mechanics; he uses his lower half well and has great body control. The delivery is smooth and easy with strong momentum and balance, a combination that can be hard to find. He repeats well,” Pennini wrote.
But Gamboa never got an opportunity to throw a major league pitch for the Dodgers. They left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft in 2022, but no other team selected him.
About one month into his 2025 season with the Oklahoma City Comets, the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, Gamboa asked for and was given his release from the Los Angeles organization and signed with the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization, who bought out his contract for $100,000, paying Gamboa a $300,000 salary.
Gamboa Gets Minor League Red Sox Deal
Gamboa put together a “3.58 ERA (3.47 FIP) with 117 strikeouts to 49 walks over 19 starts (108 innings) in which opponents batted .236 against him,” according to Brendan Campbell of Blogging the Red Sox.
Before that, according to Campbell, the 6-foot-1, 205-pound left-hander “featured a five-pitch mix with Oklahoma City earlier this year that consisted of a mid-90s four-seam fastball, an upper-80s slider, a lower-90s sinker, an upper-70s curveball, and a mid-80s changeup.”
But Gamboa chose to return to the United States, and landed a “minor league split contract with an invitation to big league spring training,” according to a report on December 9 by Will Sammon of The Athletic.
The Red Sox made the official announcement of Gamboa’s signing on Thursday. If he is called up to the majors, he gets a salary of $925,000, according to Sammon’s report.
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