Heyman: Boston Red Sox "Looking At" Starting Pitching and First Base At The Deadline

[Matthew Lenz]

We are a little over a month away from the trade deadline and reports are starting to fly on suggesting that the Boston Red Sox will look to address two positions of need.

Despite dealing Rafael Devers and sitting six games back in the AL East, the Red Sox are planning on being "buyers" at the trade deadline.

After the loss of Tristan Casas, the Red Sox haven't been able to find a productive solution at first base. At one point they were having Kristian Campbell take reps at first, but he's since been demoted due to poor performance. Now, Jon Heyman of the NY Post is now suggesting that the Red Sox could pursue Josh Naylor of the Arizona Diamondbacks or Ryan O'Hearn of the Baltimore Orioles. 

In addition to first base, Heyman adds the need for a veteran starting pitcher to bolster the rotation. This week, the Red Sox lost Hunter Dobbins to the IL and got news of a setback in Kutter Crawford's rehab.

Who would your trade deadline targets be at these positions?

View full rumor

[mvp 78]

1B - Rhys Hoskins

SP - Freddy Peralta, Andrew Heaney, Tomoyuki Sugano, Seth Lugo

[moonslav59]

I could see us being buyers (SP & 1B) and sellers (Duran or Abreu and Buehler, if anyone wants him.)

[moonslav59]

As the deadline approaches, listen for talk about Sandoval and or the return of Houck or others from the IL.

Rinse and repeat.

[FredLynn]

It would be insane for this team to be buyers at the deadline. They are going NOWHERE this year. Management needs to face reality and plan to compete in a couple of years.

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

It would be insane for this team to be buyers at the deadline. They are going NOWHERE this year. Management needs to face reality and plan to compete in a couple of years.

Management hasn't always hasn't always faced reality when we've needed them to ('22, '23, '24). 

[notin]

On 6/24/2025 at 1:32 PM, mvp 78 said:

1B - Rhys Hoskins

SP - Freddy Peralta, Andrew Heaney, Tomoyuki Sugano, Seth Lugo

SP - Kyle Harrison?

[notin]

On 6/24/2025 at 2:37 PM, moonslav59 said:

I could see us being buyers (SP & 1B) and sellers (Duran or Abreu and Buehler, if anyone wants him.)

They’ll sell Duran and maybe Chapman.  They’ll by Hoskins (or equivalent).

[moonslav59]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

They’ll sell Duran and maybe Chapman.  They’ll by Hoskins (or equivalent).

With no Devers, Duran & Chapman, what good is Hoskins for 2 months?

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

With no Devers, Duran & Chapman, what good is Hoskins for 2 months?

PR

But I dont think theyll sell Duran, they may sell Chapman.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

PR

But I dont think theyll sell Duran, they may sell Chapman.

I'm not sure what we will do, but personally, I see an OF logjam and some great needs in other areas (SP, Pen, 1B and maybe 2B, but I think Breg's return pushed Mayer to middle IF and we don't add a 2Bman.)

We maye trade Abreu, not Duran, but Abreu has more years of control and has proven he can play plus D in fenway's difficult RF. That is why I think Duran goes, in order to make room for Anthony and eventually Jh Garcia (Campbell, Bleis & Cespedes can also be considered for the future OF.)

This may happen in the winter- not the deadline, but teams get desperate and may view Duran as worth overpaying for.

I'm not anti-Duran. For a team that just lost Devers, trading our 2nd or 3rd best offensive weapon from 2024-2025 seems foolish, but I think Brez and Cora like Rafaela as our CF'er until the end of time, and appreciate Abreu's RF skills. Having Campbell, Refsnyder, Jh Garcia and maybe even Yoshida as OF options, makes trading an OF'er a must, IMO.

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, notin said:

SP - Kyle Harrison?

Call him up, but what does that add? He's another young, unproven starter. 

[Bellhorn04]

16 hours ago, drewski6 said:

PR

But I dont think theyll sell Duran, they may sell Chapman.

Trading Chapman = total sell mode.  

[Hitch]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Trading Chapman = total sell mode.  

Not sure about that. He's gone at the end of the year and he's such a sellable asset right now. Several contending teams would want him. They could move him and bring in a lesser closer, or just use Hicks/Houck. 

But even as a (somewhat) buyer, it's hard to turn down the packages we could be enticed by for him.

Different if we were an all in buyer, joint top with the Yankees, but we'll be a hesitant buyer, if we are one at all.

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

12 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Trading Chapman = total sell mode.  

You'd rather they do it half way?

The sox have a few pieces that would generate a nice return. It would be smart of them to take advantage of it.

As a Yankee fan, I hope they do a half-assed approach and don't capitalize on the position that they are in.

[drewski6]

18 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not sure what we will do, but personally, I see an OF logjam and some great needs in other areas (SP, Pen, 1B and maybe 2B, but I think Breg's return pushed Mayer to middle IF and we don't add a 2Bman.)

We maye trade Abreu, not Duran, but Abreu has more years of control and has proven he can play plus D in fenway's difficult RF. That is why I think Duran goes, in order to make room for Anthony and eventually Jh Garcia (Campbell, Bleis & Cespedes can also be considered for the future OF.)

This may happen in the winter- not the deadline, but teams get desperate and may view Duran as worth overpaying for.

I'm not anti-Duran. For a team that just lost Devers, trading our 2nd or 3rd best offensive weapon from 2024-2025 seems foolish, but I think Brez and Cora like Rafaela as our CF'er until the end of time, and appreciate Abreu's RF skills. Having Campbell, Refsnyder, Jh Garcia and maybe even Yoshida as OF options, makes trading an OF'er a must, IMO.

Wonder what kind of package constitutes an overpay for Duran, who was our best player last year and could rebound. Most likely .800 OPS, wildly inconsistent defense, still a monster on basepaths for another couple years.

Hes got a lot of skills and I worry about how we keep moving those guys.

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

Wonder what kind of package constitutes an overpay for Duran, who was our best player last year and could rebound. Most likely .800 OPS, wildly inconsistent defense, still a monster on basepaths for another couple years.

Hes got a lot of skills and I worry about how we keep moving those guys.

The only skill he shows is running fast. As we've seen lately, he's not even doing it smartly. He's running into less doubles this season. He's on pace for less stolen bases. If that's his calling card, he's not using it well this season. 

[moonslav59]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

The only skill he shows is running fast. As we've seen lately, he's not even doing it smartly. He's running into less doubles this season. He's on pace for less stolen bases. If that's his calling card, he's not using it well this season. 

Last year, Duran had 168 singles + BBs + HBP and 34 SBs.

This year, Duran has 81 singles + BBs + HBPs and 15 SBs.

IMO, he slight drop in SBs is dues to being on 1B, less often.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Last year, Duran had 168 singles + BBs + HBP and 34 SBs.

This year, Duran has 81 singles + BBs + HBPs and 15 SBs.

IMO, he slight drop in SBs is dues to being on 1B, less often.

Compare with '23 when he had a similar amount of PA's and was sitting on 1b about the same amount of times.

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Compare with '23 when he had a similar amount of PA's and was sitting on 1b about the same amount of times.

Yes, almost exactly the same amount on 1B and 24 SBs to 15.

Over a season, that's about 50 to 30. That is significant, but 30 SBs and the threat of Duran stealing bases still has significant value.

[notin]

30 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Last year, Duran had 168 singles + BBs + HBP and 34 SBs.

This year, Duran has 81 singles + BBs + HBPs and 15 SBs.

IMO, he slight drop in SBs is dues to being on 1B, less often.

Or more often with someone already on 2b?

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, notin said:

Or more often with someone already on 2b?

Our bottom of the order is better, this year- I think.

[mvp 78]

21 minutes ago, notin said:

Or more often with someone already on 2b?

If you do moon's math of 1b's + bb's + hbp, there were 143 for 8 and 9 this year. If you divide season totals in half for last year, you get 131. 9% increase of hitters on 1b (some who could go 1b to 3b), but could suppress his steals by about 10% I guess. However, I think part of his decrease is due to his stolen base % going down to 75%, his lowest since '21 when he only played 33 games. 

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

Red Sox Fire Sale? MLB-Best Tigers May Go ‘All In’ With $36 Million Boston Duo

[Bellhorn04]

23 hours ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

You'd rather they do it half way?

The sox have a few pieces that would generate a nice return. It would be smart of them to take advantage of it.

As a Yankee fan, I hope they do a half-assed approach and don't capitalize on the position that they are in.

No, I didn't say anything about half way, all I'm saying is that trading Chapman is waving the white flag on 2025.  We have a shaky bullpen as it is, without him it's a joke.  

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

20 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

No, I didn't say anything about half way, all I'm saying is that trading Chapman is waving the white flag on 2025.  We have a shaky bullpen as it is, without him it's a joke.  

But, again, he's one of their most valuable trade chips.

[Bellhorn04]

Just now, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

But, again, he's one of their most valuable trade chips.

Of course.  To clarify my position, if we trade Chapman we might as well trade every other expiring contract because the season's over.

I wouldn't trade Bregman though, I'd try to rework his contract and keep him in Boston.    

[TheSplinteredSplendor]

5 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Of course.  To clarify my position, if we trade Chapman we might as well trade every other expiring contract because the season's over.

I wouldn't trade Bregman though, I'd try to rework his contract and keep him in Boston.    

I think the tigers might give a nice return for bregman though.

And the sox are probably a few years away from being serious contenders anyway barring a serious spending splurge/major trades in the offseason.

[Bellhorn04]

3 minutes ago, TheSplinteredSplendor said:

I think the tigers might give a nice return for bregman though.

And the sox are probably a few years away from being serious contenders anyway barring a serious spending splurge/major trades in the offseason.

Well, I think the Sox are back in trying to win mode even if the results don't show it.  They spent on Crochet and Bregman, and trading Devers freed up a lot of money going forward.

We'll see.

[Randy Red Sox]

On 6/25/2025 at 11:02 AM, FredLynn said:

It would be insane for this team to be buyers at the deadline. They are going NOWHERE this year. Management needs to face reality and plan to compete in a couple of years.

this team has not had a solid deadline plan for years now. Henry and co are happy with the team around .500 as long the payroll keeps moving down relative to the rest of MLB