reports <\/a>that: \u201cThis is not a surprise or particularly revelatory, but have heard the Red Sox are, in fact, involved in serious trade talks all over the place when it comes to adding to the positional player group.\u201d<\/p>\nWhether it\u2019s signing Eugenio Su\u00e1rez or trading for Brendon Donovan the Sox need a roster spot.<\/p>\n
We know the Garrets (Crochet and Whitlock), Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Aroldis Chapman, Trevor Story, Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Carlos Narvaez aren\u2019t being traded. There are a few others as well that are highly unlikely to be moved. Think Campbell, Oviedo, and probably even Romy Gonzalez.<\/p>\n
Triston Casas would be selling very low on potentially a 30-homer guy at a corner. Could they upgrade from Connor Wong? Sure, but he\u2019s not going to get that other player and the organization seems to really like his work with pitchers, which is reason enough to have him as a backup. Masataka Yoshida would need a really special deal to move the contract for talent.<\/p>\n
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Nate Eaton, David Hamilton, and Nick Sogard are all more valuable to the Red Sox than what they\u2019d bring back in a trade. Same with Jordan Hicks. Or Greg Weissert (who isn\u2019t bad, Weissert is fine. He\u2019s just not getting you an infielder and is a weird throw-in because he\u2019s got a good role). Kyle Harrison is probably in this group as well. He\u2019s a bit like Quinn Priester. He was acquired with lower value and might end up with higher value. His Red Sox time so far doesn\u2019t seem to indicate a big step forward. And after the last few seasons, while the Sox might trade one pitcher for a bat, they are probably not interested in giving up Early\/Tolle plus Harrison, since they are all starting rotation options.<\/p>\n
Where does that leave us?<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s run down the options.<\/p>\n
Jake Bennett: they did trade for him for a reason and while that applies to Tristan Gray too, Breslow probably doesn\u2019t want to move another guy he just acquired to clear space.<\/p>\n
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The prospect pitchers: Payton Tolle\/Connelly Early. We know they don\u2019t want to move either of these guys \u2013 at least as far as leaks about Ketel Marte discussions can be believed. But could one of them help the major league team solve an infield spot for more than a year?<\/p>\n
The outfielders: Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu.<\/p>\n
Duran has been the drumbeat all winter. The Mets seemed like a destination, maybe, but acquired Louis Robert Jr. instead. The Cardinals are an awkward fit because turning Donovan into Duran doesn\u2019t really make them better when their window opens again after this rebuild. Duran is 29 and not a free agent for three more years, so he could stick around for a bit. Unless Chaim Bloom thinks maybe Duran has another 8.7 WAR season coming and he could flip him for a king\u2019s ransom at the deadline during that season? Then it\u2019s the Astros and possibly moving Isaac Paredes? He has one fewer year of control than Duran but is a couple years younger.<\/p>\n
Wilyer Abreu? His biggest knocks are hitting lefties and getting hurt. And some of the injuries, like falling on the dugout steps, aren\u2019t likely to be recurring issues. He\u2019s the youngest of Duran, Donovan, and Paredes by a couple years. He\u2019s not a free agent until 2030. He\u2019s a Gold Glove fielder. He is, possibly, the best of the players mentioned for swaps here. Maybe there is someone else that has escaped the rumors who could be as valuable an infielder \u2013 who is available \u2013 and that team needs an outfielder.<\/p>\n
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That\u2019s nearly the entire 40-man roster and, going guy-by-guy, you can see why the rumor mill has only a few targets. Zack Kelly? Jovani Moran? Patrick Sandoval?<\/p>\n
And Craig Breslow says they want to emphasize defense?<\/p>\n
This is a very good roster thatm less than a month from Spring Training, is missing either a second or third baseman. Mayer can only play one position at a time. I suppose a Romy Gonzalez-led second base rotation could work? But then if he or Mayer or Eaton struggle or hit the IL the team is back to square one.<\/p>\n
At the start of this I thought I might see something there but unless it\u2019s really out of the box, like, Kutter Crawford and Moran or Brayan Bello and David Hamilton (who did attract trade attention last year so there might be suitors out there for some price, if not high) then it really is: (1) trade an outfielder, or (2) trade a pitching prospect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ranger Su\u00e1rez is officially a member of the Red Sox. We found this out unofficially last week. Which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[162554,13196,47417,175309,28647,97811,201717,13665,1318,28645,69473,39190,187764,28642,24066,191376,10002,161280,96729,61737,28631,363,201718,201720,32424,201721,61432,32036,28624,16344,28632,86423,148589,99,94501,187168,67650,28646,201716,137997,174493,7648,61864,201719],"class_list":["post-423070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-40-man-roster","tag-aroldis-chapman","tag-brayan-bello","tag-breslow","tag-carlos-narvaez","tag-connor-wong","tag-david-hamilton","tag-eugenio-suarez","tag-free-agent","tag-greg-weissert","tag-infielder","tag-isaac-paredes","tag-jake-bennett","tag-jarren-duran","tag-jordan-hicks","tag-jovani-moran","tag-ketel-marte","tag-kutter-crawford","tag-kyle-harrison","tag-marcelo-mayer","tag-masataka-yoshida","tag-mlb","tag-nate-eaton","tag-nick-sogard","tag-outfielder","tag-patrick-sandoval","tag-quinn-priester","tag-ranger-suarez","tag-red-sox","tag-roman-anthony","tag-romy-gonzalez","tag-roster-spot","tag-sonny-gray","tag-sports","tag-starting-pitcher","tag-the-astros","tag-the-mets","tag-trevor-story","tag-tristan-gray","tag-triston-casas","tag-whitlock","tag-willson-contreras","tag-wilyer-abreu","tag-zack-kelly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}