The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired right-handed pitcher Clay Buchholz from the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. 

In exchange for Buchholz, the Red Sox have received minor league second baseman Josh Tobias. In the trade, the Phillies will be picking up all of Buchholz's remaining salary. 

The deal provides Phiadelphia some much-needed rotation depth in the transition period between rebuilding and contention. Buchholz is signed through just 2017, but he should be a nice bridge to the top prospects coming up the pipeline. 

And if Buchholz can return to old form, he could provide some major upside in Philadelphia, who may decide to keep him like they did with Jeremy Hellickson over the past calendar year. 

The Boston Red Sox have acquired left-handed starting pitcher Chris Sale from the Chicago White Sox at the Winter Meetings on Tuesday, as first reported by Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. 

In exchange for the ace Sale, the White Sox will recieve four prospects including infielder Yoan Moncada, right-handed pitcher Michael Kopech, outifelder Luis Alexander Basabe, and right-handed pithcer Victor Diaz. 

In addition to the Red Sox, the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves were two other teams to show serious interest in Sale. It was thought that the Nationals were close to acquiring him as of last night in a deal centered around Lucas Giolito. 

Today, however, Rosenthal reported that the Red Sox were still in the mix and trying to make a late run at him. Obviously, it appears that it was a successful attempt. 

The San Francisco Giants have at least had internal discussions on whether to pursue a trade for Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval, reports Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald. 

Sandoval was signed by the Giants as an amateur free agent out of Venezuela in 2003, and he had been with their organization until he left via free agency during the 2014-15 offseason. 

Since joining Boston a five-year, $95 million deal, Sandoval, to say the least, has not lived up to expectations. 

The contract would likely be the biggest concern when matching the two sides up in a trade, but as always, the more money the Red Sox decide to eat, the more they will receive. Of course, considering Sandoval's performance, it may not be a lot regardless.

On paper, Sandoval could be a good fit for the Giants, who appear to be headed into the 2017 season with Eduardo Nunez and Conor Gillaspie manning the hot corner. Last season, Giants' third basemen posted a .704 OPS, third worst in the National League. 

As for the Red Sox, they spent basically all of 2016 without Sandoval. Travis Shaw was decent, but offensively, he did not provide a lot of spark. Boston could also turn to Yoan Moncada at third, but he did not hit in his brief stint in 2016. 

In 2016, Sandoval played in just three games with Boston. He missed most of the season with a shoulder ailment that required surgery. The year prior, he posted a dismal .245/.292/.366 line with 10 homers and 47 RBI. According to FanGraphs, he was worth -2.0 Wins Above Replacement. 

--Devan Fink

The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo as their new manager on Friday. 

John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 Phoenix first reported the hiring. He noted that the press conference to introduce Lovullo be on Monday.
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With the move to Arizona, Lovullo will follow ex-Red Sox general manager Mike Hazen out west. 

On Oct. 3, the Diamondbacks both fired GM Dave Stewart and manager Phil Nevin at the end of a disappointing season where the team finished fourth in the NL West with a 69-93 record. 

Thirteen days later, Arizona brought in Hazen, and ever since, many have hypothesized that he would bring Lovullo with him to fill the manager's role. 

The 51 year old Lovullo has been serving as the Boston Red Sox bench coach since 2013. In 2015, he was the Red Sox' interim manager while permanent manager John Farrell missed the end of the season with lymphoma, a type of a cancer. In his absence, Lovullo carried the team to a 28-21 record. 

Many around the league thought that Lovullo would be a big league manager at some point during his career, but until now, he has never been given the opportunity for a full-time position despite having interviewed for multiple jobs in the past. 

An alumni of UCLA, Lovullo spent parts of eight seasons in the Major Leagues as a player before transitioning into coaching in 2001. Outside of the Red Sox' bench coach job, Lovullo's only other spot in the big leagues was as the Blue Jays' 1st base coach from 2011 to 2012. 

--Devan Fink

The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Mike Hazen as their executive vice president and general manager, they announced on Sunday. 

Arizona fired ex-GM Dave Stewart and manager Chip Hale on Oct. 3 after a poor showing this season. 

Hazen, 40, comes from Boston, where he had been serving as the Red Sox's general manager since September 2015. Despite his title, Hazen did not have complete personnel control, as President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski truly ran the front office.

With Arizona, it's likely that Hazen will have the final say when it comes to player decisions. 

Prior to the Red Sox, Hazen had been in a few different roles around baseball. After graduating from Princeton, Hazen played minor league baseball with the Padres but went to work in the Cleveland Indians' front office once his playing career came to an end. He was the Indians' assistant director of player development from 2004 to 2005. 

In addition to Hazen, the Diamondbacks also interviewed J.J. Piccolo, Kim Ng, Peter Woodfork, Mike Bell and Bryan Minniti for the position, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. 

The next step for Arizona is hiring a manager, and Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo appears to be a prime candidate to follow Hazen out west. 

​--Devan Fink