Article: Crafting a 3-Team Blockbuster With the Twins to Get Red Sox Some Pitching Help

[Maddie Landis]

Let it be known: I have nothing against the state of Minnesota. Sure, Minnesotans incorrectly refer to casseroles as “hot dishes”, they seem to be obsessed with hockey, and their accent sounds Canadian, but none of that is their fault.

One thing is certain: the Minnesota Twins, who, as their name suggests, are located in Minnesota, have a valuable trade piece that could help the Red Sox make a deep playoff run. That trade piece is the Twins’ starting pitcher Joe Ryan. The Twins hold significant influence at the 2025 trade deadline. Whether they choose to be buyers or sellers is up for question. If they are sellers, they have the opportunity to be within playoff contention next year, but they have to thread the needle carefully. A three-team trade proposal involving the Phillies, Twins, and Red Sox, with Joe Ryan headlining the deal, would help each team. 

Back in May, FanGraphs projected the Twins held a 68.7% chance of making the playoffs. The team was riding high on a 13-game winning streak, and it looked like the Twins were a formidable opponent for the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. Since then, their season has fallen apart, and the team currently is at a 14.8% chance of making the playoffs. Shockingly, they’re part of a small group of four teams that have won ten games in a row this season, a list that also includes the Red Sox.

Various organizational components can be blamed for the Twins' meltdown. Injuries to Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober have offset their rotation. Over the past year, the Pohlad family has flirted with the notion of selling the Twins. Offsetting some payroll at the deadline would help them sell the team and stock up their farm system to appeal to a potential buyer. They probably can’t shed Carlos Correa’s albatross six-year $200 million contract, but they can move other pieces and gain valuable prospects. The organization has also indicated that they’re willing to listen to trades for players on expiring contracts.

Phillies receive OF Jarren Duran (28, 1.7 fWAR) and RP Jhoan Duran (27, 1.2 fWAR)

I’ll start with my least favorite team in this proposal, the Phillies. Since 2022, the Phillies' outfield ranks 23rd in fWAR. To be honest, I’m impressed that the Phillies made the World Series in 2022, the NLCS in 2023, and the NLDS in 2024 with such a mediocre outfield. Four seasons into his five-year, $100 million contract, Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos has accumulated a total of 1.2 fWAR. The team uses an inefficient platoon of Johan Rojas (.232/.287/.303, 63 wRC+) and Brandon Marsh (.244/.318/.341, 85 wRC+) in left/center field. 

The Phillies' outfield woes were on full display during Wednesday night’s marathon versus the Red Sox. After fouling off four pitches from Red Sox reliever Brennan Bernardino (the team’s eighth pitcher of the game), former Twins outfielder Max Kepler (.203/.300/.366, 85 wRC+) struck out looking to end the game in the 11th inning. Kepler signed a $10 million, one-year deal with the Phillies in the offseason.

The Red Sox have five very competent outfielders on their major league roster and throughout their farm system. As much as it pains me to write this, Jarren Duran is the odd man out. Baseball is a business, and if trading from a position of strength helps address a roster weakness, the Red Sox must seriously consider moving Duran at the trade deadline. The speedy outfielder’s swing would fare well in Philly. Per Statcast’s Expected Home Runs by Park, Duran would have hit 26 home runs last year and 12 this season if all of them were hit at Citizens Bank Park. He also seemed to be enjoying himself in Philly earlier this week.

This trade proposal features not one, but two Durans—both with first names that start with “J” and end in “n”. Jhoan Duran (1.94 ERA, 26.4% strikeout rate, 8.3% batted ball rate, and 2.40 FIP across 45.1 innings pitched) would strengthen the Phillies' shaky bullpen (ranked 15th via FanGraphs). 

Twins receive OF Jhostynxon Garcia (22, ETA: early 2026), SS/3B Franklin Arias (19, ETA: mid-2027), SP Payton Tolle (ETA: mid-2026), SP Mick Abel (23, ETA: 2025), and 2B Aroon Escobar (20, ETA: 2028)

The Twins are reportedly seeking “at least two top-100-caliber prospects” for Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran. The team currently has a strong farm system—Baseball America listed the Twins with the eighth-best farm system at the beginning of the season. Here, the Twins would receive a haul of five top-100 prospects.

• SP Payton Tolle: #54
• SS/3B Franklin Arias: #72
• SP Mick Abel: #93 
• 2B Aroon Escobar: #97
• OF Jhostynxon Garcia: #100

Payton Tolle is a dominant left-handed pitching prospect, currently playing in Double-A for the Portland Sea Dogs. He was a second-round pick in the 2024 draft. Tolle’s fastball reaches a maximum of 98 mph with a whooping 66.7% whiff rate. Some reports suggest Tolle could skip Triple-A à la lefty flamethrowers Garrett Crochet and Chris Sale.

In recent years, the Twins have failed to develop quality infielders. Utility infielder Brooks Lee’s defensive metrics (-5 OAA, -9 DRS) are abysmal, and he doesn’t contribute much offensively (.249/.288/.367, 81 wRC+). Royce Lewis is slightly more defensively sound (1 OAA, 2 DRS), but his bat (.237/.302/.385, 92 wRC+) is on par with Lee's. 

Shortstop/third baseman prospect Franklin Arias might hold the key to reshaping the Twins' infield. Arias holds a .288/.339/.396 slash line, 113 wRC in the minors. Although his Major League debut is still some time away, he earned the 2024 Florida Complex League MVP award and was selected as a Florida Complex League All-Star. Keith Law recently ranked Arias as the ninth-best prospect in baseball. Arias has made significant strides with his bat speed and has the potential to develop into a right-handed, defensively sound power hitter. 

While the Twins probably won’t make the postseason in 2025, their future looks bright, with outfield prospects Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez expected to debut next early year.  Byron Buxton is under contract until 2028. Buxton’s turnaround this season is encouraging, but his extensive injury history raises concerns about his ability to contribute over the rest of his contract. If Jenkins and Rodriguez don't immediately succeed in the majors, Jhostynxon Garcia is a high-impact prospect on the cusp of reaching the majors that provides the Twins with additional outfield depth.

By trading Mick Abel to the Twins, the Phillies immediately help offset the loss of Joe Ryan (who I’ll get to in a moment). The Phillies have a strong pitching rotation, and Andrew Painter’s call-up is imminent, making Abel an expendable resource. Earlier this season, Abel had a small cup of coffee in the majors. He initially looked strong in his major league debut, going six scoreless innings (albeit against the lowly Pirates). After getting knocked around by the Cubs, Mets, and Padres, Abel was sent down to Triple-A. He’s posted a 1.83 ERA, 3.36 FIP, and 27.0% strikeout rate in the minors this year. Abel’s curveball is nasty, generating a 38.6% whiff rate, and his fastball velocity ranks in the 77th percentile (96.0 mph). Abel’s biggest issue is his control. At age 23, Abel is young, and his underlying metrics indicate he still has time to develop into an elite starter

The Phillies' contention window is rapidly closing, likely after the 2026 season, and they’re desperate to make a deep run in October. Second baseman Aroon Escobar (.282/.366/.438, 125 wRC+), who shot up in prospect rankings this year, is the cherry on top to woo the Twins.

Red Sox Receive SP Joe Ryan (29, 2.9 fWAR), C Christian Vázquez (34, 0.0 fWAR), and RP Griffin Jax (30, 1.4 fWAR)

Joe Ryan immediately slots in as the Red Sox’s No. 2 starter. He’s pitching at a career-best rate in 2025, posting a 2.63 ERA, 3.13 FIP, 29.2% strikeout rate, and 3.13 FIP across 116.1 innings. Ryan is eligible for his second year of arbitration in the offseason. Given his strong performance this year, he should net way more than this year's salary of $3 million. There is a surplus of caliber free-agent starters in the 2025-26 offseason, and the Twins would net more of a return trading Ryan at the deadline versus in the offseason. Trading away Payton Tolle, Jhostynxon Garcia, and Franklin Arias is a tough pill to swallow. However, the Red Sox are one of the few teams that possess the capital to swing a trade for Joe Ryan. Since Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu are the outfield of the future, Garcia is blocked from making his major league debut. When the time comes, Marcelo Mayer will likely be holding Arias down in the minors. The time is now for the team to sell some, but not all, of their prospects. 

Early in the season, Connor Wong (.144/.228/.144, 5 wRC+) was booted from the Red Sox’s starting catcher role by Carlos Narváez. It’s almost August, and Wong has only recorded one RBI. As a 25-year-old rookie, Carlos Narváez (.266/.339/.439m 113 wRC+) has stepped into the team’s starting catcher role flawlessly. Catcher is such a demanding position, and the worst thing the Red Sox can do is run Narváez to the ground by overworking him. Vázquez (.190/.254/.272, 48 wRC+) fills the team’s backup catcher role, and he isn’t hitting worse than Wong. At age 34, he’s still a serviceable defender (2 DRS, 90th percentile blocks above average). Vázquez would be a veteran presence on a young Red Sox team and a mentor for Narváez, plus the Twins would offload the remainder of his contract via trade. Griffin Jax (4.09 ERA, 36.4% strikeout rate, 6.4% batted ball rate, and 2.07 FIP across 44.0 innings) alleviates stress in the Red Sox’s bullpen, which infamously disintegrates after July. Looking towards the future, Jax is a potential reliever-turned-starter candidate for Andrew Bailey’s pitching lab.  

This trade proposal addresses each team’s roster needs. The Twins replenish their farm system with impact pitchers and position players, and they shed some payroll without selling any major pieces from their core. It alleviates the Red Sox’s outfield logjam, adds a controllable starting pitcher to their rotation and an impact bullpen piece, and helps the Phillies bolster their bullpen and outfield.

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What do you think of this proposal?

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[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Minnesota has also produced a ton of excellent music artists.

[moonslav59]

Leave Vazquez out of the deal.

[notin]

So the Phillies trade away MLB prospects #93 and #97 and get back Jarren Duran AND Johan Duran? 
 

Meanwhile thr Red Sox trade prospects #54, #72 and #100 PLUS 3 years of Jarren Duran for the marginally better package of Ryan, Jax, and the rights to pay Christian Vazquez’ salary?

The goal of this trade appears to be to funnel as many prospects as possible to Minnesota regardless of which team they come from.  Philly fans would love this deal.  Twins fans think it’s fair.  Red Sox fans would see their team get sodomized.

Want to make it more fair? Boston keeps Tolle and Philly includes Aiden Miller.  Probably not enough but at least Philly pays something…

[harmony]

40 minutes ago, notin said:

So the Phillies trade away MLB prospects #93 and #97 and get back Jarren Duran AND Johan Duran? 
 

Meanwhile thr Red Sox trade prospects #54, #72 and #100 PLUS 3 years of Jarren Duran for the marginally better package of Ryan, Jax, and the rights to pay Christian Vazquez’ salary?

The goal of this trade appears to be to funnel as many prospects as possible to Minnesota regardless of which team they come from.  Philly fans would love this deal.  Twins fans think it’s fair.  Red Sox fans would see their team get sodomized.

Want to make it more fair? Boston keeps Tolle and Philly includes Aiden Miller.  Probably not enough but at least Philly pays something…

Think again:

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/71630-should-derek-falvey-be-trusted-to-make-trade-decisions-on-griffin-jax-jhoan-duran-and-joe-ryan/#findComment-1542127

[notin]

54 minutes ago, harmony said:

Think again:

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/71630-should-derek-falvey-be-trusted-to-make-trade-decisions-on-griffin-jax-jhoan-duran-and-joe-ryan/#findComment-1542127

So Twins fans don’t like it either?  That doesn’t change that the Phillies clearly dominate this deal.

In BTV, Philly gains over $50mil in surplus value, Minnesota about $10mill in surplus value and Boston loses over $40mill.

Minnesota comes closest to breaking even.  Boston gets destroyed in their model…

[harmony]

2 hours ago, notin said:

So Twins fans don’t like it either?  That doesn’t change that the Phillies clearly dominate this deal.

In BTV, Philly gains over $50mil in surplus value, Minnesota about $10mill in surplus value and Boston loses over $40mill.

Minnesota comes closest to breaking even.  Boston gets destroyed in their model…

???

Today Joe Ryan, Griffin Jax and Christian Vazquez had a combined value of $97.5 million. 

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades?page=1&q=vazquez

Jarren Duran was listed at $47.3 million, Jhostynxon Garcia at $12.9 million, Franklin Arias at $22.1 million and Payton Tolle at $20 million, for a total of $103.3 million. 

That's close. A presumptive contending team tends to overpay at the trade deadline.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

The only thing I like about this trade is the moniker "the Duran Duran" trade.  The trade itself is so imbalanced it's hardly worth discussing.  Ryan is not a Crochet or a Wheeler, he is just a slightly above average SP who would slot in behind Alcantara, Perez and probably Edward Cabrera.  To give up our best outfielder and two quality prospects like Tolle and Garcia is WAY TOO MUCH.

In the end, PHI wins the deal by a lot, MIN comes in second thanks to Tolle, Garcia, Arias and Abel.  Boston gets the short end of the stick with Ryan (mid rotation pitcher having a career year that is 2/3 over), Vazquez (a huge upgrade from Wong but that's not to suggest he is good at his age) and Jax (a college pitcher in the 2016 draft that took until 2022 to get to the majors and hasn't done much except in 2024, his career year). 

The deal chases numbers but doesn't use the career of the player as a realistic foundation for his skills.  Ryan is NOT as good as he's pitching this year, Jax isn't as good as he pitched in 2024.  Vazquez would be an excellent back-up to replace Wong but can be gotten easily by simply offering Wong and a go nowhere prospect.

Trade proposals with Duran in them make no sense.  Cora needs to leave Duran in CF where you can see how much better he is than in LF.  He needs to stop messing with Rafaela to benefit Abreu and just start Rafaela in RF for the next decade.  Anthony in LF rounds out the outfield leaving Abreu as the platoon guy without a position except maybe splitting time at DH and 4th OFer with Refsnyder.   

Abreu is a model of inconsistency and has been since he arrived in the MLB.  His April avg was .295, then May was .212, then June was .271 and now July is .196.  Add to it he's hitting .252 vs RH pitchers and .214 vs LH pitchers this season.  How does he get so many starts with those numbers?  ONLY ONE ANSWER, he has hit 20 home runs. 

For me, that makes him a reserve who comes off the bench against RH pitchers late in the game.  His defense is nowhere near as good as Duran in CF and Rafaela is FAR better than him RF so he adds very little value so trade his 20 homer strength and let someone else deal with all his weaknesses.  Yoshida is a better all around player and he's like Devers in that he can't play defense BUT he can play DH better than Abreu since Abreu needs to sit vs LH pitchers.

[harmony]

1 hour ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

The deal chases numbers but doesn't use the career of the player as a realistic foundation for his skills.  Ryan is NOT as good as he's pitching this year, Jax isn't as good as he pitched in 2024.  Vazquez would be an excellent back-up to replace Wong but can be gotten easily by simply offering Wong and a go nowhere prospect.

Just as Jarren Duran is NOT as good as he was last year with 8.7 bWAR and an OPS+ of 131.

Duran has posted 12.7 bWAR and an OPS+ of 112 in five MLB seasons, including 2.7 bWAR and an OPS+ of 107 this year.

Ryan has posted 11.0 bWAR and an ERA+ of 114 in five MLB seasons, including 4.5 bWAR and an ERA+ of 161 this year.

Ryan, who is three months older than Duran, remains under team control for two more seasons working off his 2025 salary of $3 millon, while Duran remains under team control for three more seasons working off his 2025 salary of $3.85 million (with an $8 million team option for 2026).

[Larry Cook]

I love this deal!!!  I would sign off on it now!!

[TedYazPapiMookie]

Larry, you give up the only effective lead-off hitter since Mookie and you get a pitcher having a career year that is likely to regress to his normal performance?  You are buying high on both pitchers and giving up your best outfielder and a couple of excellent prospects when there are better prospects to part with that are blocked by guys like Mayer and Campbell.  

What do you love about the deal?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Let's get something straight about centerfield. It's easier to play than the corners. You get a better a jump because you have a straight-on view of the direction of each pitch and swing.

Guys playing left field and right field can only see the plate from angles, and balls hit to the opposite field down both lines are especially tricky because they curve in opposite directions.

Hall of Famer Robin Yount said as much in an interview today on MLB Sirius. He said he struggled trying to play LF, but was much more comfortable in CF when the regular centerfielder got hurt (which happened when they both called for the same fly, and Yount accidentally broke the other guy's toe when he spiked him -- then he made the Hall of Fame).

Jarren Duran isn't a star centerfielder, he's just better in center than in left. There is certainly more ground to cover in the gaps, and someone with his wheels can run them down -- and also outrun poor jumps or initial first steps.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 hour ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

Larry, you give up the only effective lead-off hitter since Mookie and you get a pitcher having a career year that is lrikely to regress to his normal performance?  You are buying high on both pitchers and giving up your best outfielder and a couple of excellent prospects when there are better prospects to part with that are blocked by guys like Mayer and Campbell.  

What do you love about the deal?

You don't believe Duran had a career season last year?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Let's get something straight about centerfield. It's easier to play than the corners. You get a better a jump because you have a straight-on view of the direction of each pitch and swing.

Guys playing left field and right field can only see the plate from angles, and balls hit to the opposite field down both lines are especially tricky because they curve in opposite directions.

Hall of Famer Robin Yount said as much in an interview today on MLB Sirius. He said he struggled trying to play LF, but was much more comfortable in CF when the regular centerfielder got hurt (which happened when they both called for the same fly, and Yount accidentally broke the other guy's toe when he spiked him -- then he made the Hall of Fame).

Jarren Duran isn't a star centerfielder, he's just better in center than in left. There is certainly more ground to cover in the gaps, and someone with his wheels can run them down -- and also outrun poor jumps or initial first steps.

Agree 100 percent.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

22 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

You don't believe Duran had a career season last year?

Absolutely not.  He's proven himself as both an excellent lead-off man and an outstanding Centerfielder.  He hit .295 in over 100 games in 2023 and then continued to grow as a player in 2024.  You have to realize, COVID hit his development significantly.  He was a .300 hitter in college at Long Beach State in 2018 then came out in 2019 and hit .387 at Hi-A got promoted to AA a little over a year after he was drafted.  AA was a challenge at first in 2019 at age 22 and then COVID hit and he scrambled to play out of country until he returned in 2021 at the AAA level where he hit .258 for 60 games before being promoted prematurely to the MLB in July and he struggled because he wasn't ready to be in the MLB. 

In 2022 he hit .283 at AAA and got called up the last day of May and hit .333 in June until the opposition built a book on him and he started to struggle just like Campbell did this year.  Instead of going back to AAA to work on making adjustments he played in July and August and wasn't good again just like Campbell beginning in May.  In 2023 he had a huge April hitting .396 then teams adjusted and he hit .236 in May.  Then Duran adjusted and hit .286 in June and .384 in July and in August he got hurt and missed the rest of the season. 

In 2024, he started slowly with a .268 and .236 average in the first two months then put up .360, .306 and .299 months on his way to making the all-stars.  in 2025, he has hit .279, .258, .210 when he was slumping, then .262 in July.  His .279 in April is typical of what we should expect out of him and we will see if he rebounds from his June swoon to finish the season with another .285 average.  His 2025 WAR for 103 games is 2.7 and in 2023 his WAR was 2.2 in 102 games.  Considering he's lost Devers and Bregman for a good chunk of the season, his WAR is better than expected.   

 I believe Duran profiles as a .285 hitter with an OPS+ of roughly 125.  His defense in CF is above league average and his speed will yield close to 30 SBs a year along with 15 to 20 HRs and triples.  Not many lead-off men can claim the same skills.  I say he's a keeper and we have through the 2028 season to determine if we extend him.  At 31, he probably won't age well with respect to his speed and that's a big part of his game so he leads-off until age 30.  Then a tough decision must be made.

FYI - For perspective Devers OPS+ is 128 compared to the 125 I am suggesting for Duran.  Not quite as good a hitter but an ELITE defender compared to Devers.  I rank Duran higher than Devers as a total player.

[moonslav59]

Joe Ryan just turned 29.

He has seen his WHIP go from a decent 1.169 in 2023 to 0.985 to 0.903 over the past 2 years.

.657 OPS Against in 2024 (.593 in '25.)

Crochet was at .642, last year.

I'm not a Duran hater by any means. He's an offensive weapon, and our offense sputters, too often. I dislike trading him, but the step down to his back up (Anthony) already has a higher OPS, is cheaper and rates to get way better.

I'd trade Duran, Arias, DHam, Early and Sandlin for Ryan and their Duran.

(Please say no to Vaz.)

[notin]

5 hours ago, Larry Cook said:

I love this deal!!!  I would sign off on it now!!

So you’re a Philly fan now? I thought you were down on Desperate Dave?

[Maddie Landis]

10 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd trade Duran, Arias, DHam, Early and Sandlin for Ryan and their Duran.

 

I thought about including Early and Sandlin in an initial draft! 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

9 minutes ago, Maddie Landis said:

I thought about including Early and Sandlin in an initial draft! 

That's more like it. Tolle, Arias and Password are the top three prospects in the system (not counting the Big Three who have all made the majors at some point this year).

Crochet was a 4-for-1 trade, but none of the prospects were quite that high at the time... and Joe Ryan is not Crochet.

I get that it's a multi-player deal, and quality costs more in July than the winter, so no one should be surprised if Brez shifts his focus to pitchers with less stardom who are merely serviceable. 

For all we know, they may be planning on promoting Tolle -- at minimum wage -- for the bullpen down the stretch. It wouldn't be unusual to use a big lefty starter in a reliever role to begin his MLB career, like Chicago did with Sale and Crochet.

[notin]

To make this work on BTV (and using highest-valued prospects that fit ):

Boston gets Ryan and Jax from Minnesota

Philly gets Jarren Duran from Boston and Jhoan Duran from Minnesota

Minnesota gets Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, Mick Abel, and Eduardo Tait from Philly.  And Kristian Campbell and Allan Castro from Boston. (Campbell could be replaced by Peyton Tolle and Franklin Arias, but BTV has a 6 player limit and I was just taking highest value that fits.  Campbell did.)

The big change is Philly actually giving something of value up as opposed to taking on two All Star players with multiple years of control each, and only giving up two borderline top 100 (and zero top 90!) prospects…

[notin]

16 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Let's get something straight about centerfield. It's easier to play than the corners. You get a better a jump because you have a straight-on view of the direction of each pitch and swing.

Guys playing left field and right field can only see the plate from angles, and balls hit to the opposite field down both lines are especially tricky because they curve in opposite directions.

Hall of Famer Robin Yount said as much in an interview today on MLB Sirius. He said he struggled trying to play LF, but was much more comfortable in CF when the regular centerfielder got hurt (which happened when they both called for the same fly, and Yount accidentally broke the other guy's toe when he spiked him -- then he made the Hall of Fame).

Jarren Duran isn't a star centerfielder, he's just better in center than in left. There is certainly more ground to cover in the gaps, and someone with his wheels can run them down -- and also outrun poor jumps or initial first steps.

I’m not wild about Duran in LF, but I wouldn’t call CF easier than LF based solely on Yount’s testimony.  Plenty of other weak CFs went on to become very good LFs.  Yount (along with BJ Upton and I think Jose Offerman) might be the in the minority in thinking CF was easier.

I would think CF was harder because it covers more ground, has longer throws to third and home than LF, and judging flyballs hit right at you is very difficult for many (including Duran one memorable day when the Sox faced Toronto and Raimel Tapia).

I don’t like the idea of trading Duran, but unless someone moves to 1b, or the Sox can move Yoshida, they do have a bit too much outfield talent.  Duran does have the weakest defensive profile among the Sox four outfielders.  
 

And Abreu is the hardest to move as he is far and away the best RF plus he is the de facto team leader in home runs.  Has any team ever traded away their top two home run hitters and still made the postseason?  It seems unlikely…

[notin]

1 hour ago, notin said:

To make this work on BTV (and using highest-valued prospects that fit ):

Boston gets Ryan and Jax from Minnesota

Philly gets Jarren Duran from Boston and Jhoan Duran from Minnesota

Minnesota gets Aidan Miller, Justin Crawford, Mick Abel, and Eduardo Tait from Philly.  And Kristian Campbell and Allan Castro from Boston. (Campbell could be replaced by Peyton Tolle and Franklin Arias, but BTV has a 6 player limit and I was just taking highest value that fits.  Campbell did.)

The big change is Philly actually giving something of value up as opposed to taking on two All Star players with multiple years of control each, and only giving up two borderline top 100 (and zero top 90!) prospects…

While BTV had this as a fair trade, the only way I make it is if I’m running the Twins…

[Soxlover]

1 hour ago, notin said:

I’m not wild about Duran in LF, but I wouldn’t call CF easier than LF based solely on Yount’s testimony.  Plenty of other weak CFs went on to become very good LFs.  Yount (along with BJ Upton and I think Jose Offerman) might be the in the minority in thinking CF was easier.

I would think CF was harder because it covers more ground, has longer throws to third and home than LF, and judging flyballs hit right at you is very difficult for many (including Duran one memorable day when the Sox faced Toronto and Raimel Tapia).

I don’t like the idea of trading Duran, but unless someone moves to 1b, or the Sox can move Yoshida, they do have a bit too much outfield talent.  Duran does have the weakest defensive profile among the Sox four outfielders.  
 

And Abreu is the hardest to move as he is far and away the best RF plus he is the de facto team leader in home runs.  Has any team ever traded away their top two home run hitters and still made the postseason?  It seems unlikely…

I agree, but Duran brings other things to the table than Abreu, including being better vs LHPs.

its a tough choice to make. Trading Rafaela or Anthony is nevertheless suggested but both would bring back more. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

6 hours ago, notin said:

I’m not wild about Duran in LF, but I wouldn’t call CF easier than LF based solely on Yount’s testimony.  Plenty of other weak CFs went on to become very good LFs.  Yount (along with BJ Upton and I think Jose Offerman) might be the in the minority in thinking CF was easier.

I would think CF was harder because it covers more ground, has longer throws to third and home than LF, and judging flyballs hit right at you is very difficult for many (including Duran one memorable day when the Sox faced Toronto and Raimel Tapia).

Points taken, but subjectively, I've played all three outfield positions for a long time, and center is the easiest in getting good jumps for the reasons I listed.

Generally, fly balls hit right at you aren't as hard as line drives hit right at you, especially rising liners, but that holds true anywhere in the pasture. The throw to third is tougher than from LF, but the longest, of course, is RF. 

For me. right field is definitely the hardest -- or most unfun -- because of the longer throws, and mainly the opposite curves off barrels of right-handed batters (which are the majority of hitters).

Center field is also a blast because you get more chances at making diving or sliding catches, since there is always a corner outfielder backing you up; not so much for them, though, on shots down the lines...

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Would anyone here trade Duran and Perales for Edward Cabrera in a three team deal involving San Diego and Miami?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

6 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Would anyone here trade Duran and Perales for Edward Cabrera in a three team deal involving San Diego and Miami?

Cabrera's team control runs through 2028. He's 27 years old.

[MADSTORK]

Do me a favor, “don’t propose any more trades”…

now get back to your cookies and milk

[cp176]

We all know that this team as is isn’t going to win a WS but I am sick of all the potential trade rumors. We have been fleeced by so many trades over the years that it is time to at least pretend that we deal from a position of strength.  Trading either Duran or Abreu  means we lose offense.  Not good when you have a team that needs offense.  I get that everybody needs pitching but trading Tolle just seems foolish. He’s young, big and strong.  We need pitchers like him.  I don’t know what they will or won’t do but I really hope that we don’t get jacked again.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

16 minutes ago, MADSTORK said:

Do me a favor, “don’t propose any more trades”…

now get back to your cookies and milk

Still living in the cellar?