Like the Red Sox, Fans Should Buy Into the Idea of Carlos Santana at the Trade Deadline

When the Red Sox made the baffling decision to trade Rafael Devers in the middle of the season — in the midst of a hot streak, no less — one of the through lines the front office used in their attempt to explain the deal was Devers' immaturity. Indeed, it was well-chronicled this year, as Devers didn't play nicely after the team splurged on Alex Bregman in free agency, displacing the franchise star from his usual home at the hot corner. Then, after settling in to life as a full-time designated hitter, Craig Breslow and company asked Devers to cover for the injured Triston Casas at first base, which he was simply unwilling to do. Thus brought about the stunning deal that sent him out of Boston for good, leaving a big hole in the lineup at both DH and first base.

With the team seemingly planning to run a set of platoons at those positions — Masataka Yoshida and Rob Refsnyder at DH, Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro at first — there's an obvious opening for a trade deadline acquisition to take over in the second half. Our @Alex Mayes wrote up a piece detailing a few of the available first base options on the market, all of whom are half-year rentals. I'd wager that the least exciting option of the bunch is actually the best target for the 2025 Red Sox.

Carlos Santana is a 39-year-old former catcher playing in his 16th MLB season. He's been a mainstay in the league since 2010, when he first burst onto the scene as a hard-hitting backstop with the Cleveland Guardians. After a strong decade in Ohio, he entered the nomadic phase of his career, slowly transitioning to first base as his body couldn't handle the wear and tear of catching. He arrived in Minnesota in 2024 as a full-timer at the cold corner and promptly won the only Gold Glove of his career, and he's carried over some of that success in his triumphant return to Cleveland this season.

It wasn't long ago that the Guardians looked like a postseason contender, but whereas the Red Sox launched themselves back into the fray with a ten-game winning streak prior to the All-Star break, Cleveland took itself out of it with a ten-game losing streak. Santana is playing on a one-year, $12 million contract and has been taking his career year-to-year recently. He wouldn't cost much in terms of prospect capital or financial commitment, making him a perfect fit for a team that may still toe the line between selling and buying at the trade deadline.

Offensively, Santana isn't quite the voracious slugger he once was, but he's still plenty productive. Through 89 games (360 plate appearances this season), the veteran is slashing .232/.328/.360, good for a 98 wRC+. His ISO (.129) is down near career-low levels, but his walk (11.9%) and strikeout rates (18.6%) remain positively elite. It's also worth pointing out that his numbers are being dragged down by a disastrous June. In 23 games (90 plate appearances) last month, the 39-year-old slashed .169/.233/.253, good for a pitiful 38 wRC+. His strikeout rate ballooned to 25.6% while his walk rate (7.8%) fell off a cliff.

Luckily, he's regained some footing in July, hitting .227/.320/.386 (102 wRC+) in the few weeks leading up to the All-Star break. His strikeout (14.0%) and walk rates (12.0%) have stabilized, and he's back to limiting the soft contact off his bat. It's not quite equivalent to when he produced a ridiculous 182 wRC+ in May, but a better-than-league-average bat still exists inside the switch hitter.

Of course, offense isn't the only reason you'd be bringing someone so long in the tooth in. Santana has become a great defender at first base in recent years, and he's on pace for perhaps his best season with the glove yet. His seven Outs Above Average put him on pace to match the 14 OAA he gave Minnesota in 2024, and his seven Defensive Runs Saved nearly match the eight DRS from last year in half the innings. Compared to what Gonzalez (-1 OAA in 224 innings) and Toro (-3 OAA in nearly 325 innings) have given the Red Sox, Santana's defense alone would be worth the price of admission.

Also, and this should be obvious from the preamble of this article, Santana is a natural-born leader. From his time as a catcher on a team that made the World Series in 2016 to his recent journeyman swing, he knows how to command the attention of the locker room. And, not that it would be wise to ask him to do so, you can bet the 39-year-old would change positions if it was in the best interest of the team. It's been nearly a decade since he made the World Series with the Guardians, and he hasn't gotten particularly close to returning since. Odds are, he'd do nearly anything on the diamond for the sake of winning.

Staring up at a 12-game deficit in the AL Central while in a virtual tie for second with the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals, FanGraphs gives Cleveland a meager 10.3% chance of making the postseason (and an almost-nonexistent 0.7% chance of usurping the Tigers for the division crown). They may only be 4.5 games out of the third Wild Card spot, but they'd need to leap all of the Royals, Twins, Angels, Rangers, Rays, and Mariners to make the dance. It'd be difficult for them to trade Santana, long a fan favorite who willingly chose to return in what could be the swan song of his career, but it's the right decision given his rental status.

The Red Sox would be wise to capitalize on the Guardians' unfortunate circumstances. Bringing in Carlos Santana wouldn't just lengthen the lineup and vastly improve the infield defense—it would give the clubhouse another leader. On a team with so many budding young stars, the importance of that can't be overstated.