July 1: The two teams have announced the swap of Harris for Hansen. The Red Sox optioned Harris to Triple-A Worcester and designated Kahnle for assignment, as was reported last night.
June 30: The Red Sox and Athletics agreed to a trade sending infielder Brett Harris to Boston, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The A’s designated him for assignment over the weekend when they acquired reliever Hayden Juenger from the Blue Jays. Minor league righty Ben Hansen will go back to the A’s in return, reports Andrew Parker of Sox Prospects. Boston’s 40-man roster is officially at capacity, but they’re reportedly going to designate Tommy Kahnle for assignment tomorrow.
Harris changes teams for the first time in his career. The Gonzaga product was a seventh-round selection by the A’s in 2021. Harris doesn’t have huge physical tools, but he’s a capable defensive third baseman who has shown a patient approach in the minors. He got to the big leagues in ’24 and has been up and down from Triple-A Las Vegas over the past couple seasons.
A right-handed batter, Harris hasn’t done much at the plate at the big league level. He’s a career .194/.307/.289 hitter with three longballs in 73 games. Harris has a much stronger .291/.385/.465 batting line in nearly 900 Triple-A plate appearances across four seasons. Although the power is inflated by his playing in the Pacific Coast League, Harris rarely expands the strike zone and makes a solid amount of contact.
Harris is primarily a third baseman but can play any non-shortstop infield position. He has committed four errors in roughly 500 MLB innings at the hot corner, grading as a slightly above-average defender by Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved. He’s in his final minor league option year and can be assigned to Triple-A Worcester for the remainder of the season.
Caleb Durbin has finally gotten going after a brutal first couple months. He’s locked into everyday third base playing time, but Harris could grab a bench spot over Andruw Monasterio or Nate Eaton. The latter was ejected from Tuesday’s loss to the Nationals for fighting amidst a bench-clearing brawl, so he might be facing a minor suspension. Willson Contreras, whose jawing with Cade Cavalli spurred the benches to clear, is almost certainly going to be suspended for throwing his helmet in the scrum.
The A’s pick up a lottery ticket reliever in the low minors. Hansen, 24, is a 6’6″ righty whom the Sox selected in the 20th round in 2024. The BYU product has a 4.75 earned run average across 41 2/3 innings in a long relief role in High-A. He has fanned 28% of opponents against an 8% walk rate while getting grounders at a near-50% clip.
