The Red Sox rank 29th of 30 teams in both homers (36) and runs (187), and their collective 89 wRC+ is better than only three other clubs.\u00a0 The lack of pop has been one of the major factors of Boston\u2019s 22-28 record, and the front office is looking to upgrade the lineup.<\/p>\n
Club president Sam Kennedy told WEEI\u2019s Greg Hill<\/a> in a radio interview yesterday that the Red Sox were looking into trades, and the Athletic\u2019s Jen McCaffrey<\/a> wrote today that the team would prefer to add a right-handed hitter.\u00a0 Some positions are obviously more of a need than others, but McCaffrey writes that Boston \u201cis looking to add any offense in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Willson Contreras<\/a> leads the Sox with a 140 wRC+ and has first base locked down.\u00a0 Catcher is probably not a major position of need since Connor Wong<\/a> is providing roughly league-average offense, even if Carlos Narvez isn\u2019t hitting much.\u00a0 Mickey Gasper<\/a> has also hit well in a small sample size since being called up from Triple-A a couple of weeks ago, giving the Red Sox even more depth at the catching position.<\/p>\n Wilyer Abreu<\/a> and Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a> have been very productive, while Masataka Yoshida<\/a> has been so-so as a part-time DH and outfielder.\u00a0 While Jarren Duran<\/a> has struggled and Roman Anthony<\/a> is on the injured list, the Red Sox outfield is still crowded enough that the team would likely only be looking to add a part-time bat in that area.\u00a0 Since Rafaela is the only right-handed bat within that group of five outfielders, this is where another righty-swinger might come in handy for platoon purposes, as Anthony\u2019s continued absence creates some opportunity for playing time on the grass.<\/p>\n Shortstop, second base, and third base are the most obvious target areas, as the Sox have gotten little to nothing from Marcelo Mayer<\/a>, Trevor Story<\/a>, Caleb Durbin<\/a>, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa<\/a>.\u00a0 Story will be gone for at least the next six weeks recovering from hernia surgery, and Mayer will now move from second base to get some playing time at shortstop<\/a> in Story\u2019s absence.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s possible that the shift back to his original position could increase Mayer\u2019s overall comfort level and unlock his bat against Major League pitching, but in any case, the Red Sox still want to give Mayer regular looks at the big league level.<\/p>\n Durbin was the centerpiece of a six-player trade with the Brewers in February, so the Sox aren\u2019t going to entirely abandon him despite Durbin\u2019s extreme struggles at the plate.\u00a0 IKF was signed to a one-year, $6MM deal over the winter and was viewed as a part-time player at best, so reducing his playing time (or maybe releasing him entirely) in favor of another right-handed hitting infielder seems like the most probable option.\u00a0 Andruw Monasterio<\/a> and Nick\u00a0Sogard<\/a> are also around in the infield mix but the Red Sox might prefer an external answer and a more proven bat.<\/p>\n Whether such an established bat can be found just two months into the season remains to be seen.\u00a0 Though we\u2019re less than a year away from the June blockbuster that saw the Red Sox themselves send Rafael Devers to the Giants, it is more likely that any external additions come in the form of a waiver claim or a trade for a recently-designated player rather than the Sox landing a true everyday starter type.<\/p>\n Teams generally prefer to wait until much closer to the trade deadline to pull the trigger on truly significant deals (whether as buyers or sellers), and all the parity in the American League adds another layer of difficulty to trade talks.\u00a0 Only five AL teams have winning records, leaving 10 clubs still technically in contention \u2014 for all their issues, the Red Sox sit two games out of a wild card slot.<\/p>\n Kennedy alluded to the situation by saying \u201cthere\u2019s some National League teams that are, I\u2019d say, more engaged in conversations than typical at this time of the year\u2026.Will we be able to get a deal done or match up on something I have no idea is the truth, but there\u2019s conversations, there\u2019s urgency, and that\u2019s something that\u2019s that\u2019s important, and hopefully something that could be done, you know, earlier rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n Among teams not expected to contend this season, the Cardinals and White Sox both have winning records, so they\u2019re probably going to play things out further before considering selling.\u00a0 The Angels should be in sell mode but rarely operate in such a fashion<\/a>.\u00a0 The Rockies, Marlins, and Nationals are all likely open for business already when it comes to moves, and one wonders if Washington\u2019s CJ Abrams<\/a> might be on Boston\u2019s radar if chief baseball officer Craig Breslow<\/a> is open to a major infield shakeup.\u00a0 Nats president of baseball operations Paul Toboni came to his current job after a decade in the Red Sox front office, so Toboni has plenty of knowledge about the Boston farm system.<\/p>\n The firing of manager Alex Cora<\/a> just 27 games into the season indicates there\u2019s plenty of pressure on the organization to turn things around, and Breslow\u2019s job security has also come into question since Cora\u2019s removal.\u00a0 With this in mind, it is possible Breslow might be more open to dealing prospects if it means adding a major bat quickly.\u00a0 Top prospect Franklin Arias<\/a> is surely unavailable and Breslow will be understandably hesitant about dealing from the team\u2019s minor league pitching depth.\u00a0 But, since asking prices are always inflated in trade talks at this time of the year, rival front offices are surely going to try and capitalize on any perceived desperation on Boston\u2019s part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox rank 29th of 30 teams in both homers (36) and runs (187), and their collective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-689106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}