Early Trade deadline deals the selling Sox should make

[mvp 78]

17 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

So, maybe 4th yr of actual rebuild but maybe 5-6 yrs of frustration as those 2 things arent exactly the same.

I could get behind this.

Arf arf

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, Old Red said:

Pretty much everyone you trade you have to replace, so it’s not as simple, easy, or financially better than it may seem.

1-Two months too early for this discussion.

2-Focus on the players that won't be here in 2027.  That's Gray and Chapman.  Everyone is either someone we will need in 2027, or someone that won't bring back more than a lottery ticket, even including when we eat salary.

[Sthpaw777]

3 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

Odds of this not happening?

He will need Theo to hold his hand I’m sure…

[Sthpaw777]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If they trade Chapman, they need to keep Whitlock around. Doesn't make sense to deal both of them unless they are tanking for 3 years. 

I would say it depends who’s coming back. I’m sure not a lot all alone but if he’s involved in a deal that can bring something back that’s worth it then they have to at least consider it.

[Sthpaw777]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

It doesn't feel like Durbin is a core player. Maybe bench player? 

I saw him as a Brock Holt type, not 3b. He’s a slap hitter. No power. Maybe run into 10 a year

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, drewski6 said:

So, maybe 4th yr of actual rebuild but maybe 5-6 yrs of frustration as those 2 things arent exactly the same.

I could get behind this.

After adding Crochet, Suarez, Gray, Contreras & Chapman over the last 2 years, I think they felt the rebuild was complete and just some tweaks were needed.

Most of the core players are under control for 2+ years- many at low or reasonable salaries.

The Sox brass might admit to a 2023-2024 "rebuild era."

[moonslav59]

These guys will never give the impression they are rebuilding, let alone a 3 year rebuild, so I doubt Whitlock is traded. (Contreras also has 2 years after '26.)

Trading 1.5 year players like Duran might be asking too much, and his stock is so low, it's probably worth holding on to a slim promise he rebounds.

Bello's stock has tumbled as he and KC have many years of control left, so they go nowhere quickly.

Chapman and Gray are the two obvious considerations. Sandoval, IKF and Coulombe will bring back nothing and will be gone, next year. You can trade them at the deadline and not be screaming "rebuild." It's just giving up on the current season.

Story and Yoshida have too much salary lingering to be tradable, unless we attach a prospect, pay 70-85% or take back a salary dump.

Duran is not highly paid, but we couldn't trade him last winter, so who wants him now?

[Sthpaw777]

28 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

These guys will never give the impression they are rebuilding, let alone a 3 year rebuild, so I doubt Whitlock is traded. (Contreras also has 2 years after '26.)

Trading 1.5 year players like Duran might be asking too much, and his stock is so low, it's probably worth holding on to a slim promise he rebounds.

Bello's stock has tumbled as he and KC have many years of control left, so they go nowhere quickly.

Chapman and Gray are the two obvious considerations. Sandoval, IKF and Coulombe will bring back nothing and will be gone, next year. You can trade them at the deadline and not be screaming "rebuild." It's just giving up on the current season.

Story and Yoshida have too much salary lingering to be tradable, unless we attach a prospect, pay 70-85% or take back a salary dump.

Duran is not highly paid, but we couldn't trade him last winter, so who wants him now?

Only reason Duran is still here is because Breslow wanted the moon for him and no team wanted to do that. Teams would like him but he has to be realistic about each players current worth on the market and to the team.

[Kimmi]

1 hour ago, JoeBrady said:

1-Two months too early for this discussion.

We have the pitching and the defense to be a very competitive team.  Our offense is currently pretty unwatchable, but I can't believe they're as bad as what they've shown.  I'm as frustrated as anyone else with this team right now, but there's a lot of baseball left to be played.  As we've seen many, many times, things can look a lot different in one week, much less 4+ months.

[moonslav59]

27 minutes ago, Sthpaw777 said:

Only reason Duran is still here is because Breslow wanted the moon for him and no team wanted to do that. Teams would like him but he has to be realistic about each players current worth on the market and to the team.

I think that is mainly it.

I remember thinking we should get more than Paredes for Duran- like King, Sousa or Janek, or even 2 of those three, but I'm not sure I'd have said no for one on one.

(I think HOU did say no, so that point is mute.)

I remember notin suggesting Duran for Rushing and nobody rushing to agree. (Not sure LAD would have said yes.)

MVP suggested Duran for prospects, and posters gasped.

Word was the Padres wanted him, but I never heard a suggested offer.

[moonslav59]

15 minutes ago, Kimmi said:

We have the pitching and the defense to be a very competitive team.  Our offense is currently pretty unwatchable, but I can't believe they're as bad as what they've shown.  I'm as frustrated as anyone else with this team right now, but there's a lot of baseball left to be played.  As we've seen many, many times, things can look a lot different in one week, much less 4+ months.

We were 5 games under .500 on June 6, 2025, won 8 of the nest nine and were still 2 games under .500 on July 2nd.

This board was not very encouraged after 90 games, last year.

[notin]

3 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

That Red Sox team opening 2022 was coming off an '21 offseason when Kike hit more homers than the '26 Flops.

I don't know any Brewers fans, but if I did I'd ask them what kind of hitter Durbin was in '25. 

Because I suspect he's being ordered to uppercut and try to pull everything, which as we've seen has only produced easy grounders or pop-ups that aren't even out of the infield when he pulls his head.

Remember, Breslow told us after the trade that Durbin was going to be a fly ball pull hitter at Fenway and hit more home runs this year. 

On baseball-ref, they have a section called Hit Trajectory that breaks down each guy's batting average on hits per by Line Drive, Ground Ball, Fly Ball or Bunt. The highest for most batters is Line Drives, of course; last year Durbin hit .607 on liners (too many Atom Balls). 

Aaron Judge's career batting average on fly balls is .401 because 40% of his flies can't be caught.

Wanna know what Caleb Durbin hit on fly balls in his rookie year? He batted .137: 18-for-131. But Brez says he's going to be a fly ball hitter, and he'll fire all the coaches who disagree!

Did Breslow praise his flyballs? 
 

I recall defense, contact skills and pull tendencies as the things Breslow highlighted…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Did Breslow praise his flyballs? 
 

I recall defense, contact skills and pull tendencies as the things Breslow highlighted…

When the trade was announced, Brez said, "And I also feel like he's a good fit for our park just given the profile of hitting the ball in the air to the pull side"

The only thing Durbin pulls when he hits the ball in the air is his head. That's why we see so many infield pop-ups; it's not that he's too weak to hit the ball to the outfield, he's continually taking his eye off the ball on contact. It happens when batters try to yank pitches... at all levels.

[notin]

4 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

1-Two months too early for this discussion.

2-Focus on the players that won't be here in 2027.  That's Gray and Chapman.  Everyone is either someone we will need in 2027, or someone that won't bring back more than a lottery ticket, even including when we eat salary.

Teams unloading 10 or more players like Minnesota last year are extremely rare.  
 

If two months from now, nothing has changed or at least changed enough, Gray and Chapman are likely to be the only pieces moved.  Maybe Duran and/or Bello, but I have my doubts.

 

The fantasy that the Sox are going to unload 10 or 12 members of the current roster and then suddenly become competitive is a pipe dream built on frustration.  Sure the Sox could unload Weissert and Kelly, snd then replace them with? Two pitchers who couldn’t beat out Weissert and Kelly? That sounds like improvement.

The idea of addition by subtraction doesn’t work if you’re subtracting nothing.

And if the Sox unload Story, Yoshida, Bello, Gray, Chapman, Campbell, Sandoval, etc. for salary relief, do people still believe the Sox are going to turn around and pump that money back into one superstar free agent?  How many times can you watch that not happen before it sinks in?