The Time Has Come: Why the Red Sox Must Trade from Their Outfield Depth This Offseason

[mvp 78]

8 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i'm on board with trading an outfielder -even Duran. for pieces of equal value that we truly need and will help win games.  Vientos and Tong are anything but that. not even close.

Vientos had a 136 wRC+ in '24, but is a horrible defender at 3b. He barrels and hits the ball hard, but isn't a pull hitter for Fenway. Lots of swing and miss.

This deal would clearly be for prospect Jonah Tong.

 

[moonslav59]

10 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

i'm on board with trading an outfielder -even Duran. for pieces of equal value that we truly need and will help win games.  Vientos and Tong are anything but that. not even close.

Tong's value is speculative, and we have plenty of that on our own. Viento has power but is a question mark, going forward.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

Tong's value is speculative, and we have plenty of that on our own. Viento has power but is a question mark, going forward.

No more ??????

We need !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So stop \\\\\\ and ///// 

& spend some $$$$$$$$

[moonslav59]

I think the plan would be for Vientos to move to 1B and Mayer at 2B (Polanco at 2B?)

[moonslav59]

21 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

No more ??????

We need !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So stop \\\\\\ and ///// 

& spend some $$$$$$$$

I'm not for this trade.

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I think the plan would be for Vientos to move to 1B and Mayer at 2B (Polanco at 2B?)

If Breslow went ahead with this trade, it would mean he's strapping a rocket to Tong. 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I think the plan would be for Vientos to move to 1B and Mayer at 2B (Polanco at 2B?)

Probably a one-year platoon with Casas, and a backup at 3rd.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If Breslow went ahead with this trade, it would mean he's strapping a rocket to Tong. 

Agreed. Vientos might not even beat out Casas for the 1B job, nor Mayer for 3B, but we could play Mayer at 2B.

[mvp 78]

23 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed. Vientos might not even beat out Casas for the 1B job, nor Mayer for 3B, but we could play Mayer at 2B.

If Casas is healthy, I'd rather him fulltime than platooning with Vientos. 

[drewski6]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Vientos had a 136 wRC+ in '24, but is a horrible defender at 3b. He barrels and hits the ball hard, but isn't a pull hitter for Fenway. Lots of swing and miss.

This deal would clearly be for prospect Jonah Tong.

 

Yup lets trade one of our 2 best hitters for our third best pitching prospect, genius.

[drewski6]

32 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Agreed. Vientos might not even beat out Casas for the 1B job, nor Mayer for 3B, but we could play Mayer at 2B.

Vientos at 3b, Mayer at 2b, and Casas (who becomes a waiver claim when he gets hurt and hes likely to again, because hes not athletic) , and no Duran. SIGN ME UP (said nobody except the condescending boot licking noodle bat lovers)

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Yup lets trade one of our 2 best hitters for our third best pitching prospect, genius.

If Duran is one of the Sox 2 best hitters going into the '26 season, they are in big trouble. 

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

Vientos at 3b, Mayer at 2b, and Casas (who becomes a waiver claim when he gets hurt and hes likely to again, because hes not athletic) , and no Duran. SIGN ME UP (said nobody except the condescending boot licking noodle bat lovers)

He wouldn't get put on waivers as he has options. That's the biggest value Casas has right now: he can be stashed in AAA for a few years to get back to being something. 

[drewski6]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

He wouldn't get put on waivers as he has options. That's the biggest value Casas has right now: he can be stashed in AAA for a few years to get back to being something. 

My point is that if we make the trade (duran for vientos and tong, and pencil vientos into a spot as was mentioned)

Then we look like this

Anthony
Yoshida
Abreu
Vientos
Story
Casas
Mayer
Nav
Cedanne

And Vientos struggled hard last year, and I dont think casas stays healthy or is getting healthy or is someone we should count on (but I do agree dont give him away and his options provide value).  And Story isnt particularly healthy, and I could very much see this being a bottom 10 offense.

[drewski6]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If Duran is one of the Sox 2 best hitters going into the '26 season, they are in big trouble. 

Right, but not as much trouble as you'd be in if he would have been one of your 2 best hitters but you flipped him and now you just have Anthony and 0 other hitters in the top 60 in baseball.

[drewski6]

THere are people advocating for this trade who believe:
Hamilton should be a strong side platoon
Casas and Yoshida will replace Bregman and Devers production
Homeruns dont matter
We should all be thankful for John Henry and he should be cheap because boots taste delicious

We're in silly land.  Non serious.  

Me? I see a team that keeps subtracting from their offense (really since Betts) and I just dont think its wise to keep subtracting from the offense without adding. So Im with you.

If you wanna trade Duran for Vientos and Tong, I dont, but if someone knows something I dont and Tong is actually ELITE and they make the trade....You just have to go add bats.  Not trade Duran and be happy with an offense that revolves around guys who get hurt every year and arent really 1-4 hitters even when healthy.

 

[mvp 78]

19 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

My point is that if we make the trade (duran for vientos and tong, and pencil vientos into a spot as was mentioned)

Then we look like this

Anthony
Yoshida
Abreu
Vientos
Story
Casas
Mayer
Nav
Cedanne

And Vientos struggled hard last year, and I dont think casas stays healthy or is getting healthy or is someone we should count on (but I do agree dont give him away and his options provide value).  And Story isnt particularly healthy, and I could very much see this being a bottom 10 offense.

If they traded for Vientos, this would cause them to NOT sign a big name FA? 

[drewski6]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they traded for Vientos, this would cause them to NOT sign a big name FA? 

The conversation that I joined was a few people envisioning an infield of Casas, Vientos, Mayer, Story

And I agree with UtahSox that if thats 2026 (along with abreu, anthony, cedanne, yoshida) than 2026 is a skip.

[mvp 78]

15 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

If you wanna trade Duran for Vientos and Tong, I dont, but if someone knows something I dont and Tong is actually ELITE and they make the trade....You just have to go add bats.

That seems like that would be the plan, right? Vientos is just a bench piece. Tong is a cheap add to the rotation. sox use savings to add to 1b/3b. 

Again, we're talking about a trade that came from NY talk radio. Not exactly something that is coming from reality to begin with so it's nothing I'm taking seriously. 

I honestly don't know enough about Tong to say if he's worth it in a trade for Duran. He's not the #2 that Breslow said he wants, just another question mark to add. 

[drewski6]

Just now, mvp 78 said:

That seems like that would be the plan, right? Vientos is just a bench piece. Tong is a cheap add to the rotation. sox use savings to add to 1b/3b. 

Again, we're talking about a trade that came from NY talk radio. Not exactly something that is coming from reality to begin with so it's nothing I'm taking seriously. 

I honestly don't know enough about Tong to say if he's worth it in a trade for Duran. 

I agree with you 100%.  I dont think this trade happens.  But the people jumping on it, who have also poo-poo'd the need for Marte and said that Hamilton should start as strong side platoon and  Casas and Yoshida are going to more than makeup for the losses of Duran, Devers ,and Bregman

And Im just rolling my eyes at the boot licking and lack of desire to have a better offense.

There are three types of teams:

1. Teams that have a top 3 offense
2. Teams trying to improve their offense
3. Non-serious teams

[drewski6]

I think the blue jays are going to get bichette or tucker, which is going to push the yankees to make a splash, the phils are going to want someone, even small market teams may take one of the 4 or 5 (only) big FA bats away.  Its not gonig to be easy to get one.  We should try to get one (at least) but cant make em sign.

And if we come away wiht no Bregman, Alonso, Schwarber, bichette, and on top of that we trade duran for a backup and a pitching prospect.....

Well, I asked the people (in other threads) that dont seem to be really concerned about adding a bat but still want to trade Duran for pitching prospects (and wont trade cedanne for anybody nad have no interest in Marte)...Ive asked these people what they expect or what they want with that lineup that really doesnt have any hitters who were top 50 last year ....And they responded Casas and Yoshida and fans are greedy to want more than that and really we should be thankful for ownership.

 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

If Casas is healthy, I'd rather him fulltime than platooning with Vientos. 

Casas has nice splits. I agree. I was thinking maybe Vientos at 3B  with maybe Mayer playing some 3B vs some RHPs. 

Again, I do not see Vientos as a solution to our needs on offense, except he has some power.

I'm not for this trade. I admit, I don't know much about Tong.

[moonslav59]

31 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they traded for Vientos, this would cause them to NOT sign a big name FA? 

That's how I see it.

[JoeBrady]

35 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If they traded for Vientos, this would cause them to NOT sign a big name FA? 

Tong + Vientos for Duran frees up $8M in spending.

[JoeBrady]

31 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I honestly don't know enough about Tong to say if he's worth it in a trade for Duran.

IMHO, he is on par with Tolle.

[moonslav59]

14 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I think the blue jays are going to get bichette or tucker, which is going to push the yankees to make a splash, the phils are going to want someone, even small market teams may take one of the 4 or 5 (only) big FA bats away.  Its not gonig to be easy to get one.  We should try to get one (at least) but cant make em sign.

And if we come away wiht no Bregman, Alonso, Schwarber, bichette, and on top of that we trade duran for a backup and a pitching prospect.....

Well, I asked the people (in other threads) that dont seem to be really concerned about adding a bat but still want to trade Duran for pitching prospects (and wont trade cedanne for anybody nad have no interest in Marte)...Ive asked these people what they expect or what they want with that lineup that really doesnt have any hitters who were top 50 last year ....And they responded Casas and Yoshida and fans are greedy to want more than that and really we should be thankful for ownership.

 

To me, signing Bregman or Bichette and no other big offense adds, we could easily be worse on O than in 2025. They just replace the 2025 Bregman and hopefully don't miss the time he missed.

The idea that 330 more PAs from Anthony can replace the 330 PAs lost from Devers has some merit, but I see Anthony as the wild card that might put us over the top. We still need to make up for the Devers loss. We did better, last year, but we need to build upon that and not seek a status quo philosophy based on the hope that our younger players will naturally all progress by enough to make up for not only the loss of many key players but to improve on the 2025 baseline skill level.

Sure, we lost some players we can view as "addition by subtraction," and every year I make that point, but we always find ways to replace those names with others who do about the same- and so on... In theory, we have to not only replace these guys and their value but add to them:

PAs

495 Bregman .821

334 Devers .905

209 Refsnyder .838

119 N Lowe .790

That's about enough PAs for two full timers. Replace them in kind and then plan of the kids' improvement to bring us the plus we need may not be enough, but not replacing these nearly 1200 PAs with high quality players- two of them- is a losing plan.

Okay: add Bregman or Bichette and that replaces the 2025 Bregman and Lowe. Now, we need KMarte, Alonso or Schwarber to replace 550 PAs from Devers and Ref.

We have to expect some injuries and "off seasons, " too.

[mvp 78]

27 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I think the blue jays are going to get bichette or tucker, which is going to push the yankees to make a splash, the phils are going to want someone, even small market teams may take one of the 4 or 5 (only) big FA bats away. 

The Jays signing Bo is just a lateral move though? How does that push the envelope for any team? 

Tucker at least upgrades Lukes in LF. To really make a splash, the Jays need both Tucker and Bo. 

[moonslav59]

7 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

IMHO, he is on par with Tolle.

I'd love another Tolle, but we are not in rebuild mode, now, and we have two Tolle's already (Tolle and Early) plus some up and coming pitchers who might make great strides in 2026, like Perales, Witherspoon, Valera, Fajardo, Phillips, Holobetz and maybe a couple more.

Now, if we end up trading Tolle and others for Ryan or KMarte and have Tong in his role, then maybe...

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

Tong + Vientos for Duran frees up $8M in spending.

Honestly, not a lot of $ to me. Sox were willing to take on Hicks for MORE last season. I can't be worried about dumping Duran now for middling CBT relief. 

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

The Jays signing Bo is just a lateral move though? How does that push the envelope for any team? 

Agreed, and that's how I see the Sox bringing back Bregman. I ask, okay, so then what next?