For the Boston Red Sox, whose mostly encouraging season ended when they dropped the American League Wild Card Series to the New York Yankees, the offseason will be dedicated to addressing specific flaws that prevented them from advancing further — or from winning more than the 89 games that got the Sox the second AL wild-card berth.
Chief among those flaws was the lack of a true, reliable No. 2 starting pitcher to extend the rotation after ace Garrett Crochet, whose 32 starts made him the only pitcher on the Boston staff to top 28.
At the same time, the Red Sox have a well-documented abundance of outfield talent that includes this season’s rookie sensation Roman Anthony, 2024 Gold Glover Wilyer Abreu, slick-fielding center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela — and last season’s All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran.
According to “Locked on Red Sox” podcast host Gabby Maljanian, it is Duran who is most likely to be packaged in a deal to bring in needed starting pitching.
“Here is why Jarren Duran is likely to be traded. Although he had a bit of a down year this season, he did have some upside in value still that he provides in terms of his versatility as a baseball player,” Maljanian said on Tuesday’s podcast. “He still hit 16 home runs, 41 doubles, and an American League leading 13 triples while also successfully stealing 24 bases across 30 attempts. Now, that 13 triples that leads the AL is notable because his speed alone is something that could intrigue a lot of teams. He has a lot of value in terms of his ability to steal bases and turn triples into potentially inside the park home runs, turn singles into doubles, doubles into triples.”
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Robbie Hyde, the host of the Red Sox-oriented podcast “Monster Territory,” also believes Duran is the most tradable Red Sox outfielder. And the target he has in mind: Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene.
Greene’s fastball has been clocked as high as 103 mph, and not surprisingly has been described as “elite” by former Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart.
“If you look in the baseball dictionary, and ‘easy cheese’ was in there, it would be like a picture or video of him,” Barnhart told MLB.com after catching Greene earlier in the fireballer’s career. “It’s incredible how hard he throws.”
But Greene has been injury-prone, which according to Hyde should bring his trade price down.
“Until he can show that he can go a full season, his value is going to lag a little bit. But it’s still incredibly high. That just shows how good he actually is. It’s just about staying healthy for him,” Hyde said on his podcast recently. “But getting back to the point, I think the Red Sox and the Reds absolutely line up on a deal.”
Realistically, however, Duran alone would not be enough to secure Greene if the Reds actually decide to deal him. If they did, it would be primarily to shed the four years and $71 million remaining on his contract. Hyde suggested that the Red Sox would need to dig into their organization pitching depth to fill out the trade package, possibly for this year’s first-round draft pick out of Oklahoma, Kyson Witherspoon.
The 21-year-old right-hander is rated as the organization’s No. 4 prospect overall, and third-ranked pitcher, by SoxProspects.com
