{"id":453631,"date":"2026-02-02T13:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453631\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T13:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:15:09","slug":"insider-drops-terrifying-red-sox-hint-amid-brendan-donovan-trade-buzz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/453631\/","title":{"rendered":"Insider Drops Terrifying Red Sox Hint Amid Brendan Donovan Trade Buzz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Sunday was a day of action across Major League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox were left in an in-between state.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">Trading Jordan Hicks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/red-sox\/onsi\/boston-red-sox-news\/red-sox-trade-explained-why-jordan-hicks-was-dumped-to-white-sox-jackson3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">to the Chicago White Sox<\/a> and freeing up $8 million in payroll for each of the next two years was a significant move. But one of the precious few remaining infield options left the market, as free agent Eugenio Su\u00e1rez agreed to a reported $15 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">Boston has been connected to a handful of other standout infielders, including the St. Louis Cardinals&#8217; Brendan Donovan. But while providing the latest update on Donovan&#8217;s market, one baseball insider strongly hinted that the Red Sox might be plotting something fans would despise.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6q\">If you like our content,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Would Red Sox consider adding no more infield help? <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/01kgf76j59cycxz5ar0t.jpg\" alt=\"Donovan\" title=\"Donovan\" width=\"4195\" height=\"2359\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"73\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Apr 4, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan (33) celebrates after hitting a home run during the fifth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images | Paul Rutherford-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">According <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Buster_ESPN\/status\/2018160341734330466\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">to Buster Olney<\/a> of ESPN, some baseball executives expect Donovan to be moved in the next couple of weeks, but Boston&#8217;s preferred plan may be to add no other infielders of any kind. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">&#8220;Perhaps most interesting position player available in the market: The Cardinals&#8217; Brendan Donovan. Some rival execs fully expect he&#8217;ll be moved in the next couple of weeks,&#8221; Olney wrote Sunday evening on X. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">&#8220;The Mariners have had interest; he&#8217;d fit the Red Sox, too, although Boston seems intent on leaning on Marcelo Mayer in a big way this year, while going with a (David) Hamilton\/(Romy) Gonzalez platoon at second base.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">Red Sox fans loved Gonzalez in a platoon role last year, but we saw when he took over on an everyday basis that he wasn&#8217;t a particularly good option against righties. But Hamilton was far worse last year, to the point where optioning him to Triple-A on a couple of occasions was unquestionably the right move for the ballclub. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">It&#8217;s possible that the Red Sox eventually want Kristian Campbell to re-enter the mix at second base, possibly phasing out the need for Hamilton in the process. But on an offense that currently seems to be demanding a top-five Most Valuable Player finish from Roman Anthony in year two, it sure would be nice to have more veteran presence. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">Not many Red Sox fans would accept an opening day infield that included Hamilton against a right-handed pitcher. And doing that with the freed-up payroll of salary-dumping Hicks would be an added insult.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">More MLB: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/red-sox\/onsi\/boston-red-sox-news\/red-sox-s-updated-infield-options-as-eugenio-suarez-signs-with-reds-jackson3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Red Sox&#8217;s Updated Infield Options As Eugenio Su\u00e1rez Signs With Reds<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday was a day of action across Major League Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox were left in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-453631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}