Alex Mayes

When the Red Sox signed Aroldis Chapman during the offseason, it was met with quite a bit of skepticism. Over the last handful of years, he had shown signs of aging and was no longer the lights out closer that so many knew him to be. He’s been in the league for an impressive 16 seasons, and many figured he would factor into the back-end of the bullpen, but there was no expectation that he'd be used much in high-leverage situations due to his recent "meh" campaigns. Once he got to Boston though, things changed. Chapman has been trusted to take the ball in late game situations in both the 8th and 9th innings this season. He’s worked in a closer platoon role alongside Justin Slaten. Slaten has struggled to begin the month, so Alex Cora seems to have trusted Chapman to take over more closing duties than just whenever the opposing teams have left-handed hitters coming up in closing situations. The most interesting thing about Chapman this season hasn’t been his ability to lock down the end of games though; it’s the fact that his four-seam fastball is back with a vengeance. During the last two seasons, Chapman featured his four-seam fastball less than half of the time. Instead of just blowing people away, he featured a sinker and slider more prominently in his pitch mix in an effort to try and keep hitters off balance. It didn’t seem to work very well for him. He posted ERAs of 3.09 and 3.79 in 2023 and 2024. While that’s not awful by any stretch of the imagination, you don’t want your go-to closer living in that realm when he’s supposed to be getting the final three outs in a close game. This season though, he’s sporting a 1.88 ERA thanks, in large part, to that four-seam fastball. Last year, Andrew Bailey put a focus on off-speed pitches for the entire Red Sox staff, so it was expected that Chapman would have to lean on his secondary offerings more again this year, but things seem to have changed. He’s currently featuring his four-seam fastball 53% of the time, and it’s averaging 98.5 mph, almost a full tick faster than last season. His four-seamer is also rising more this year than in previous years. Currently, the pitch is getting almost three more inches of rise than all other fastballs thrown by left-handed pitchers. That rise doesn’t help with Chapman’s control issues, something he’s always struggled with during his time in the majors, but it does allow for his sinker to be his true strikeout pitch now, given that he's throwing it harder and with as much rise as the four-seamer. It's not that uncommon for a pitcher to have rise on their sinker, but Chapman's is almost unnatural. For reference, Marcus Stroman, long known for his sinker, averages about four inches of rise on the offering — Chapman is at almost 17.5 inches of rise this year! Aroldis Chapman seems to have rediscovered a pitch mix that has allowed him to be the most successful reliever he’s been in quite some time. Until he proves otherwise, he should be the closer for the Red Sox in 2025. While there is youth in the system behind him, he’s shown that he can be trusted to take the ball in clutch late game situations. That’s something that every successful organization has to have. It’s time to hand Chapman the full-time closer role and let him thrive. View full article

It was easy to see when the Red Sox traded for Carlos Narvaez that the team was putting a focus on defensive catchers. We all started to wonder what this could mean for Connor Wong in the long run, as defensive ability had never been his strong suit. He was a catcher that showcased far more offensive potential than defensive. It was fair to wonder if Narvaez would supplant Wong as the starting catcher in 2025, especially after Wong broke his pinky on a catcher’s interference call in early April. At least in the early returns, though, Wong seems determined to prove everyone wrong. The catching portion of his Baseball Savant page isn’t on fire, but it is plenty red. If we compare that with his 2024 catching page, we see some significant differences. These improvements can be linked to a change in Wong’s offseason training program. The Red Sox hired Parker Guinn as the new catching instructor and bullpen catcher. Guinn ended up working with Wong for a couple of days a week during the offseason. With the help of game coordinator and Red Sox catching legend Jason Varitek, Guinn and Wong came up with an offseason program that put a renewed focus on the defensive side of the position. What ended up happening was Wong altered his stance behind the plate. His legs sit in virtually the same positions as they did in previous years, but he’s angled his chest more forward and sits lower in his squat than he has before. This allows him knock down or block balls that would end up as passed balls or wild pitches. It also allows him to frame pitches with far more success than he has in the past. By sitting lower in the squat, Wong is able to frame pitches that miss down and off either corner as pitches that clip the zone. This allows him to get more calls for the pitchers throwing to him, which, in a non-strike zone challenge world, is as valuable of a skill that a backstop can have. He’s able to give his pitching staff a sense of confidence when he’s behind the plate. We’re working with a limited number of starts so far in 2025, but it seems like Connor Wong may have figured out the defensive side of catching this season. The offensive side has to come around for it to make sense for him to keep getting starts over Narvaez, but he’s proven in the past that he’s capable of making offensive adjustments when necessary. If both sides of the game start to click for Wong soon, then the Red Sox have a great problem on their hands. (h/t Jen McCaffrey) View full article

Before the start of the game on Wednesday, May 7th, Alex Cora went on his weekly appearance on “WEEI Afternoons” and was once again asked about Rafael Devers taking over first base in the wake of the injury to Triston Casas. Up to this point, Cora has remained steadfast that Devers would not play first. On Wednesday though, his tone changed. Cora told WEEI, “I’m not saying we’ll never have that conversation but I think for right now, where we’re at, I like Raffy as a DH.” Then, in the pregame media session Cora was asked about those comments. He said, “I think right now the most important thing is he’s very comfortable where he’s at and we’re very comfortable with what he’s doing. His production is really good. Coming into the season, that was the red flag. Everybody was talking about is he gonna get used to it? Can he DH because he’s not playing third base? ... He doesn’t need to play third base or first base to hit … He’s hitting the ball hard. And he’s producing. So for now I keep saying, he’s my DH and I’m very happy with that.” These quotes are a pretty decent departure from the firm ‘no’ that he has offered to date. Cora went on to say that recent call up Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez offered positives to the team and that he wants to “let Raffy be Raffy.” I think, for now, that letting "Raffy be Raffy" makes sense. Devers is still learning to be a full-time DH and having him change his routine again so early in the season doesn’t seem like it would be beneficial. We already know that Devers wasn’t thrilled about the first position change, then going 0-19 to start the season, and having to reach out to guys like JD Martinez and David Ortiz to figure out how to adapt to his new, offense-only role. However, there may come a time soon when Devers is needed to play first on a regular basis. There are veteran players who think he could transition to first quickly and play well, with Lou Merloni being one of the more vocal of them. There’s even precedent in the AL East for this to happen, as the Blue Jays did it with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2020. Now, that position change happened early in Vlad’s career, after his first rookie season, while Devers has gotten years of play time at third until this season. We know that Devers is proud of playing the field and getting him back out there on a daily basis could help fix some of his offensive woes that still plague his season to this point. I don’t anticipate this being a legitimate conversation until Masataka Yoshida is ready to rejoin the big league club — and that could be months away, depending on how his shoulder feels while he throws as he progresses through his rehab program and prepares to return to baseball. When Yoshida is ready, playing him at DH on a daily basis and planting Devers at first likely puts the best lineup on the field day in and day out. At the end of the day, shouldn’t that be the goal of the organization? View full article

Defining who exactly the 2025 Red Sox are is a bit of a challenge so far, but the negatives outweigh the positives. We’re over one month into the season now, typically a time when teams begin to show their true colors. So far, the Red Sox could define themselves a few different ways, The team that leads the American League in stolen bases. The team with the most three-run home runs in the majors. The team that struggles to score runs past the sixth inning. The team that can’t close games. The team with the most blown saves. You likely have your own phrase to define how the season has gone so far too. With so many available options, it’s fair to wonder just who the Red Sox actually are this season. The Red Sox are young The average age of the Red Sox roster is slightly deceiving. It comes in at just about 29 years old, but is pretty heavily influenced by Justin Wilson, Aroldis Chapman, and Rob Refsnyder who are 37, 37, and 34, respectivelly. None of the starting outfielders are older than 28, Alex Bregman and Trevor Story are 31 and 32, respectively, while the rest of the infield is 28 or younger, both catchers are 28 or younger, and the entire starting rotation is 30 or younger. Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer are expected to make their big league debuts sometime this season, and they are 20 and 22. There’s a youth movement in Boston that should set the team up for seasons to come, but with that young movement comes inexperience. These young players have to learn to win at the big league level. It takes time to get there, but the expectation in 2025 was that the Red Sox would be far better than they have been the previous three seasons. Luckily, the entire American League is middling and right there with Boston, so there isn’t much reason to panic yet. However, the youth movement needs to get going quickly. The Red Sox are wasting quality starts Boston leads the league in quality starts with 16. How many wins do they have on the season? 18. If we break that quality start total down by pitcher we start to see a trend. Garrett Crochet has four quality starts, one win. Walker Buehler has three quality starts, four wins. Tanner Houck has three quality starts, no wins. Brayan Bello has two quality starts, two wins. Richard Fitts has two quality starts, no wins. Lucas Giolito has one quality start, no wins. If we compare that to the blown saves total for the bullpen, we see what’s happening. Justin Wilson has three blown saves, Garrett Whitlock has two, Zack Kelly has one, Greg Weissert has one, and Justin Slaten has one. Relievers are coming into games with a chance to close them out and they are blowing leads, sometimes in short order. The bullpen was a constant discussion all offseason and it looks like more reinforcements are needed. The Red Sox are world beaters... in the first three innings­­ As of May 5, the Red Sox have scored 179 runs in total. Through the first three innings they’ve scored 79, or 45%, of those runs. In innings four through six, they've scored 45 (25%) of their runs. In innings seven through nine, they're at 51 (29%) runs. Scoring less later in games isn’t a new thing in baseball. You’re typically seeing specialty relievers who throw upper 90s with consistency or pitchers that feature absolute filthy breaking balls. Those pitchers are typically harder to hit than a starter who has to mix at least three pitches into his repertoire. However, when you’re dealing with a bullpen that struggles to maintain even six-run leads, the offense needs to be productive throughout the entire game. The Red Sox are a comedy of errors The Red Sox lead the Major League in errors with 30. This, unfortunately, isn’t a new thing for the team. There was hope that Trevor Story being healthy and signing Alex Bregman to play third would help to alleviate the problem, but, so far, they are first and second on the team in errors. Bregman leads the charge with five, Story close behind him at four. Surprisingly, Jarren Duran own three errors on the season already as well. As fans, we expected all three of them to be sure-handed and likely be in contention for Gold Gloves at their positions but through the early part of the season, they’ve proven to be liabilities on defense. It doesn’t help that Alex Cora continues to give David Hamilton looks at shortstop and second base when he’s struggling to make basic defensive plays. He technically only has one error on the season, but watching most of his starts will show you that he’s benefitting from balls in play being scored as hits when he should have been given errors instead. The defense has to get better—leading the league in errors is effectively giving games away, especially when you can point to one or two miscues in a game that resulted in runs scoring. Honestly, there are quite a few other ways to define the Red Sox, and not all of them are negative. If this team wants to live up to its potential, some major concerns must be addressed in short order. The American League is wide open this season, and there’s no reason for the Red Sox to be hovering around .500 again. Massive upgrades have been made to the starting rotation, and the offense has shown incredible firepower in spurts. Eventually, the elite starting pitching and offensive prowess needs to line up for a run of games so the Red Sox can start to pull away from the rest of the league in win totals. The bullpen is still a giant question mark, but hopefully some reinforcements are coming to town sooner than later. View full article

Triston Casas suffered a “significant knee injury” in the bottom of the second inning on Friday night. He remained on the ground for quite a while as the team doctor attended to him, finally calling for the cart to take him off the field. After the game, Alex Cora informed the media that Casas was still at the hospital and that the team would know more on Saturday. Although Casas wasn’t having the season most had hoped, he seemed to be turning the corner and figuring things out at the plate. As such, he’s going to be difficult to replace in the lineup. Let’s take a look at where the Red Sox could turn to cover first base. Internal Candidates Romy Gonzalez The obvious answer here is the other half of the first base platoon. Gonzalez is currently slashing .279/.340/.419 in 14 games. He’s played well this season in limited action, mostly against left-handed pitching, and will likely get the majority of reps at first unless a move is made to bring in a big-name first baseman. Connor Wong The Red Sox have long touted Wong’s defensive versatility, but after six games at first last year, he wasn’t even in the discussion for a platoon role there this year. Don’t expect to see Wong at the cold corner unless things have gone off the rails. Rob Refsnyder Refsnyder, also used in a platoon against left-handed pitching, has logged 227 career innings at first and could potentially see some time there, though he hasn’t played the position since 2020. Carlos Narvaez Narvaez worked at first base while in Triple-A with the Yankees last year, so it’s possible the Red Sox could look his way. That being said, so far, Boston hasn't had him play there in any capacity. Vaughn Grissom Grissom has been getting work in at first base down in Triple-A Worcester — only four games so far — but he’s been hitting well. I don’t really believe that his offensive outburst at Worcester will translate to the big leagues, but I’d love to be proven wrong. His numbers likely give him the edge to be the next man up. He’s currently slashing .287/.369/.444 with three home runs. Nick Sogard Sogard looked good in limited action once called up to the big leagues last season. He brings a lot of defensive versatility to the roster, and he’s played five different positions at Triple-A so far this season. Abraham Toro Toro looked solid in spring training and has been playing well at Worcester, slashing .310/.403/.480 with an .883 OPS. He was a dark horse to make the Opening Day roster and could be in line for a call-up sooner rather than later. External Candidates Dominic Smith Currently on a minor league deal with the Yankees, Smith is a fan favorite but likely wouldn’t offer much in terms of offense. He’s familiar with the system, though, and would likely be welcomed back with open arms. Christian Arroyo Another former Red Sox player on a minor league deal, Arroyo has only played nine games this season. His numbers look good, .351/.385/.703, but he’s coming off a hamstring injury and it seems unlikely that the Phillies would be inclined to get rid of him at the moment. Anthony Rizzo This is more of a pipe dream for Rizzo, who had almost no attention as a free agent during the offseason. He’s 35 and has been rapidly declining since a concussion in 2023. At the very least, he was drafted by the organization in 2007, so maybe he would want to finish his career in Boston as a bench piece. You’ll notice that Rafael Devers, Masataka Yoshida, and Roman Anthony don’t appear on the list, and for good reason. Cora has made it clear that he doesn’t want Devers in the field. It would likely do more harm than good to try and force Devers to learn a new position on the fly as he finally seems to be settling into his role as the full-time designated hitter. Yoshida doesn’t have the frame to play first and we don’t know when he will be back with the major league club. Anthony’s defensive abilities would be wasted at first base — he profiles as a potential Gold Glove outfielder. There are trades that could happen, and Craig Breslow has proven he’s not afraid to make deals when they benefit the team, but we’re still just a month into the season, and most organizations would be unlikely to start trading major league pieces this early. Nolan Arenado said he would move to first base in the right situation, but he hasn’t been a bright spot on a middling Cardinals roster. An intriguing name on that same team that I’ve written about before though, is Jordan Walker. Walker came up through the Cardinals system as a third/first baseman and has looked lost since the team shuffled him into the outfield mix. Getting him away from St. Louis and back to a position he’s actually comfortable with could do wonders for him. Are there any other options you’d consider? Leave them in the comments and let’s discuss! View full article

With the first full month of the season completed, we’re handing out awards for March and April. I’m taking a look at the top three pitchers on the MLB roster, with a bonus honorable mention for extra fun. Without further ado, onto the awards! Honorable Mention: Garrett Whitlock Garrett Whitlock appears here, despite giving up a three run home run to tie the game on the final day of April, because he seems to be regaining his 2021 dominance after he requested to move to the bullpen full time before this season. He has the makings of an elite set-up reliever and should be someone Alex Cora can turn to every couple of days to shut down opposing offenses, his final appearance in April notwithstanding. Whitlock is a valuable piece of the bullpen and will likely climb from honorable mention to top three a handful of times this season. #3: Walker Buehler After two less than stellar starts to the season, Buehler has claimed the number two spot in the starting rotation. Much like Crochet, you feel confident that the Red Sox are going to win when he’s on the mound. His ERA is deceiving a bit, as he’s pitched far better than his 4.28 would indicate. Buehler has admitted that he’s no longer the type of pitcher to blow you away with his velocity, but his success is coming from his expansive pitch mix. So far this season Buehler has shown a four-seam fastball, cutter, sinker, sweeper, knuckle curve, changeup, and slider. Hitters are guessing more often than not as to which pitch they are about to see. While it’s likely unfair to ever expect Buehler to become the pitcher he was before his injuries, this version fills a need perfectly for the Red Sox and they would be smart to lock him into a longer term contract. #2: Justin Slaten I debated a bit about which closer to give the nod to for the first month of the season but settled on Slaten because he has a higher ceiling than Aroldis Chapman now. Realistically, Slaten is the closer of the future in Boston and should take the role over at some point during the 2025 season. He’s currently sporting a 3.48 ERA with 10 1/3 innings pitched and nine strikeouts. The other thing that gave Slaten the edge over any other reliever was that he has altered his pitch mix to make him a more effective strikeout pitcher. His curveball is devastating so far this season and hitters are struggling mightily against it. As Slaten grows as a pitcher, it won’t be shocking to see him show up consistently on these lists moving forward. Pitcher of the Month: LH SP Garrett Crochet This was pretty cut and dry as Crochet has been as advertised since arriving in Boston. He closes out April with a three and two record, 2.05 ERA, 50 strikeouts, and a 1.05 WHIP. 50 strikeouts rank him second in the AL, only behind Carlos Rodon who has 52. His Baseball Savant page is fiery red and projects to remain that way all season. Every time Crochet toes the rubber you expect the Red Sox to win that game, he’s that dependable. After his two rougher outings this season, he has looked inward and realized what went wrong for him. He’s been quoted as wanting to get back to his fastball instead of trying to nibble on the edges of the zone. As he returns to mid-season form, look for Crochet to win his fair share of monthly MLB awards. What do you think? Who would get your vote? View full article

Yeeeeeeeah. I stand by it though. Every reliever has a bad game.

The Red Sox seem to have a knack for identifying relievers who can contribute on the big league roster in the Rule 5 draft. First, Garrett Whitlock dazzled us in 2021. Now, Justin Slaten looks like the closer of the future in Boston. So far this season, Slaten has been working in tandem with Aroldis Chapman in the closer role, but if he continues to dominate like he has been, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t fully take over the ninth inning gig at some point during the 2025 season. Let’s take a look at the underlying factors that have made him so dominant this year. First, Slaten has favored his four-seamer over his cutter so far in 2025. In 2024, Slaten featured a cutter 38% of the time and a four-seamer 29% of the time. This year, though, he’s essentially flipped those pitches. He’s throwing his four-seamer 39% of the time and his cutter 28% of the time. He’s throwing both offerings with a bit more speed, too, as the four-seamer is up from 96.4 mph to 97 mph and the cutter is up from 91.5 mph to 92.8 mph. The benefit here is that these pitches tunnel out of the exact same spot and it’s incredibly difficult to pick up the movement on the ball until it’s too late. What’s more interesting though, is that in 2024, both versions of the fastball were pitches that he would go to when he was ahead in the count. He was spotting the pitches in different locations and having a ton of success with his fastball offerings. This season though, his off-speed offerings have become his bread and butter. Last year, Slaten threw his sweeper 25% of the time, while his curveball barely saw any usage, sitting at just nine percent. As aforementioned, though, he's made a pretty big change this season. His curveball has jumped to a 21% usage, and his sweeper has fallen to nine percent. Part of this can be explained by the shape of the sweeper. So far this season, his sweeper features more rise than it did last year. Typically, sweepers that rise in the zone get knocked around fairly easily by major league hitters. Maybe this was a purposeful, mechanical change, or perhaps it was an error in his delivery. Regardless, the righty has made a conscious choice to focus on his curveball, and that has proved to be the key to his early season success. Slaten's hammer is absolutely nasty. It’s averaging 6.3” more vertical drop than other right-handed pitchers in 2025. When hitters swing at it, they flail at something that is virtually unhittable. Just take a look at this tweet from Rob Friedman to see how much Slaten's curve moves. That's just downright unfair. The eye test may not be as valuable as it once was, but as a baseball fan, it's still a fun thing to watch such a ridiculous pitch. Slaten has already gotten five whiffs on the curveball, almost half of his total from last season with the offering (11). He hasn’t allowed a hit on the curveball this season, and if it keeps moving like it has been, it could be a long time before someone makes solid contact with it. Justin Slaten has arguably been the best reliever in the bullpen since last season and he looks to continue his dominance in 2025. As he proves to be an elite reliever with a fluid pitch mix, look for him to secure the closer’s job as the season continues. View full article

I'd much rather have Rafaela roaming center. He's a Platinum Glove candidate in my opinion.

If Duran could play passable center field defense, I'd disagree with you and would never bring up trading him again. It looks like he can't though, so it makes the most sense to sell high and get as much value back as possible.

I hadn't seen that when I wrote mine. Glad to see some similar thoughts somewhere else on the internet. Thanks for sharing!

He's not having a great start to the season but he sure is fun to watch! Maddie, Alex, and Adam reflect on an exciting series in Cleveland that included Jarren Duran stealing home and being heckled by fans. They look ahead to Lucas Giolito's return and what that means for the Red Sox rotation. Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-talk-sox-podcast/id1783204104 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qPrPXEngu0CxgTmlf0ynm Listen on iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-the-talk-sox-podcast-244591331/ Listen on Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/4tmd121v Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talksox View full article

The Red Sox currently sit in second place in the AL East, and a couple of major trade additions could make them World Series contenders. Who in the organization would have to be on the move to make a trade like that happen? Since we’ve looked at potential trade targets as the season gets underway, I wanted to take a few minutes to consider who could be headed out in such trades later this season. We’re going to take a different approach to organizing these. This time, we’ll break players down into these categories, as it relates to the possibility they are actually traded: likely, possible, and highly unlikely. Below, you’ll fix a mix of current major league contributors and minor league standouts who could be parts of larger, potential blockbuster trades. As of this writing, the Red Sox are firmly in contention and I’ll be approaching this exercise as if they are in the same position or better as the trade deadline approaches. Likely To Be Traded: Triston Casas, 1B – If you’ve watched much of Netflix’s documentary series The Clubhouse¸ you’ve noticed that Casas is a major focal point of the series. His big personality attracts attention and he’s usually good for quotable phrases and a laugh or two. It seems, though, through watching reactions of his coaches and teammates, that his personality has worn a bit thin to those have daily interactions with him. From the eye-rolling to the snide comments after he walks away, it’s become pretty clear that he likely isn’t long for the Boston Red Sox. Casas seems to have turned a corner with some changes in his hitting approach, but Alex Cora still obviously doesn’t trust him against left-handed pitching. Even if Casas comes screaming back to life from now until the deadline, look for the front office to shop him as part of a trade package that lands the team another starting pitcher. Miami has long had interest in his services and they have an All-Star caliber starting pitcher still on the roster. Franklin Arias, SS – Despite his most recent promotion to High-A Greenville, Arias is listed here because he’s effectively blocked at every other level of the organization. There’s Mikey Romero (more on him in just a second) at Portland, Marcelo Mayer at Worcester, and Trevor Story at the big league level. Story isn’t going to hang around forever, but unless Arias rockets past Romero, there’s still no room on the big league club for someone who should command a decent return in a trade package. Arias has the makings of an impact player, but good organizations know when to capitalize on that momentum, and the Red Sox would be foolish to not cash in. Mikey Romero, SS/IF – In a follow up to Franklin Arias, the one person who could block him at Portland is the same person who could be traded to make room for him as he climbs the ladder. Romero is a fine athlete but is likely to find himself outplayed by a younger Arias who seems to be climbing the organizational ladder rather quickly. He’s a bat-first shortstop, something that typically doesn’t play super well in the majors unless you’re an All-Star caliber talent, which Romero likely isn’t. He isn’t the player you’d put as the centerpiece of a trade, but he’s a worthwhile piece that could be added to entice teams to include bigger stars. Yoeilin Cespedes, 2B – Much like the shortstop position, the Red Sox are filled with second basemen at every level of the organization. Kristian Campbell isn’t going anywhere on the big league roster, David Hamilton plays second better than he does shortstop, and even Connor Wong has shown the ability to play a passable second base in short stints. Don’t forget that the Red Sox traded for Vaughn Grissom to play second as well. Cespedes is young (he's only 19) and incredibly raw. Those intangibles will make some teams salivate as they look to fortify their minor league program with players who show potential to grow. Cespedes could move off of second base, but most other positions he could move to are blocked at the upper levels of the organization as well. Yophery Rodriguez, OF – The newest addition to the minor league system raised a few eyebrows when he came over as part of the trade that sent Quinn Priester to the Brewers. Rodriguez has played well since his arrival in Greenville, and the coaching staff believes that he has more tools to be unlocked. The reason he ranks on this part of the list is that the Red Sox are flush with outfield talent, to the point that people in positions ahead of Rodriguez will likely need to be moved at the deadline as well. He’s an athletic addition to the program, but it makes sense for him to be moved as a piece in a much larger package too. Vaughn Grissom, SS/2B/1B – Even though some pundits are calling for Grissom to replace Casas at the major league level, there seems to be no rush to bring him back to Boston. I’ve already written how Grissom likely needs a change of scenery to find himself again, but it looks like a move to first base may have started that process while he’s still in the system. That being said, he’s a prime trade piece simply because he hasn’t proven to be a major league contributor in Boston. He would do well to move to a different organization where the pressure of being traded for a Cy Young winner will be lifted off his shoulders. Possible Trade Pieces Jarren Duran, OF – Yes, Duran has started heating up. His at-bats look much more like the ones from his All-Star 2024 campaign. He’s an offensive spark and his recent hot streak is why he’s been moved to the ‘possible’ category instead of the ‘likely’ category. I wrote here how Duran should be traded for an ace back in October. I then wrote here how, even though Duran and the Red Sox agreed to a two-year extension, something felt fishy about it. I stand by both of those statements and fully believe the plan is to trade Jarren Duran, though it'll likely happen next offseason instead of the trade deadline. Out of the outfielders who make the most sense to trade, Duran is the perfect combination of value and timing. He’s older than the young core the team is building around, and outside of Roman Anthony, there’s no outfielder in the organization who will command a larger return than Duran. Kutter Crawford, RHP – The Red Sox found themselves with a ton more pitching depth headed into the 2025 season. Crawford was an innings eater in 2024, totaling 183 2/3 innings pitched. He wasn’t stellar though, and the home run ball was his demise in the second half. He’s currently on the injured list and is likely a candidate to head to the bullpen when he returns this season. He’d likely have some appeal to teams that spend more time in a pitcher-friendly ballpark though. Jhostynxon Garcia, OF – Another fringe major league player that is blocked and will likely only get called up as other prospects also get called up. He’s the logical person to take Anthony’s position in Worcester when the club finally makes that phone call. That being said, he has trade value. He’s young and has shown to have legitimate power potential with regular playing time. He’s solid on defense and likely will only get better as he ages and grows with the game. Miguel Bleis, OF – A year younger than Garcia, Bleis is still sitting at High-A Greenville. He profiles as a fourth outfielder if he ever reaches the big leagues, but suffers from the same situation as Garcia in that he’s blocked at every level of the organization. The team will likely have to pick either Bleis or Garcia to hold onto at the deadline, as having both of them in the system seems redundant. Ceddanne Rafaela, OF – Although these names aren’t ranked, if they were, I’d have Rafaela still below Duran in chances of being traded. Rafaela isn’t the offensive star that Duran is, but his defense is more than enough to make up for his lack of steady production. He’s shown flashes of his offensive abilities recently, and has been working more walks on the young season, but he’s a potential Platinum Glove winner in the future. It would be pretty surprising to see the Red Sox trade him, although for the right return it’s possible. Masataka Yoshida, OF – As with pretty much everyone outside of the Red Sox front office, I have no idea what’s going on with Yoshida. He’s a contributor on any MLB team he plays for and if he was at least getting reps in Triple-A, then I would have put him in the likely to be traded category. Yoshida deserves to play major league baseball and it should be with a different organization than Boston. Unlikely To Be Traded: Marcelo Mayer, SS – Mayer started his season at Triple-A Worcester a bit slow, especially after he seemed to explode in spring training, but he’s broken out in a big way during the last week and a half. He’s primed to take over for Trevor Story sooner than later and shouldn’t even be considered in a deal. Roman Anthony, OF – See above. Any deal for someone not named Paul Skenes should be laughed at. Kristian Campbell, 2B – The Red Sox believe that Campbell is their second baseman of the future, and for good reason. He’s a potential Rookie of the Year candidate and should be playing up the middle for years to come in Boston. Wilyer Abreu, OF – Had I written this before the season started, Abreu would have been in the ‘likely’ category as the odd man out in the outfield. I’m very glad to have been proven wrong, and he seems like a valuable piece of the future puzzle, even if he’s currently slumping. Connelly Early, LHP – Early is likely going to earn a promotion to Worcester sooner than later and has the potential of a back-end starter in the majors. He’s someone that the Red Sox should continue to work with and promote up as he showcases his talent. He could be pushing for a spot start in Boston by the end of the season. Hunter Dobbins, RHP – Dobbins has impressed in his two big league starts this season and looks to be the exact type of pitcher that will push for a full-time rotation spot during spring training in 2026. It’s telling the Sox haven’t pushed him to the bullpen, opting to keep him working as a starter in Worcester to give the team a ready-to-go pitcher when needed. He’s someone that can be molded into an impact starter as early as next season. There’s a ton of positional overlap on this list and that’s because the Red Sox have talent at all levels of the organization. There are other names that will likely come up in trade discussions as well, but if the Red Sox prove to be in contention as the deadline draws near, expect them to be buyers in a big way. To make a giant splash in the trade market, you have to trade desirable pieces. A big market team like Boston shouldn’t be scared to make deals for superstars—they started that trend by bringing in Garrett Crochet. Expect them to ship more prospects, and even some big league contributors, out to fortify the major league club in a big way. View full article

After a rough start to the 2025 season, Walker Buehler finally appears to be holding his own on the mound. Can we expect more of this version of him throughout the season? There was some concern about Walker Buehler after his first couple of starts to the season. Through both of those starts, he carried an ERA north of eight and only struck out seven batters. Fans were starting to wonder if the Buehler everyone saw close out the World series was an outlier, and if the Red Sox had hitched their cart to a pitcher that couldn’t fully bounce back from major elbow surgery. Then, in his third start of the season, things seemed to click. Ever since, Buehler has seen an uptick in nearly every category that matters. His strikeouts increased from three in his first outing to nine against the White Sox on April 21 (he only notched three against the contact-oriented Guardians but still delivered a quality start). His strikeout percentage also rose from 14.3% to 33.3%. His batting average against was an abysmal .368 through two games; in the three starts after, it sat at an incredible .167. The biggest thing though is that his hard hit percentage has dropped by over 20 points, from 43.8% to 20%, since his first start. His pitch mix finally seems to be working well, and opposing hitters are off balance against whatever he throws. Another thing of note is that his speeds are down on all of his pitches, across the board. While typically that spells disaster for starters, it seems to be working for Buehler, as he has done a better job of controlling the strike zone with his (relatively) softer stuff. The thing that stands out the most though is that Buehler has lowered his arm slot to the lowest point it has been in his career to 42 degrees. This means a couple of things that are worth watching going forward. First, it relieves some of the stress on his surgically repaired elbow, allowing him to pitch without worrying about re-injury as much. Second, it allows his off-speed pitches to play further off of his fastball. His sweeper now has more glove side movement — 2.6 inches more to be exact — and right-handed hitters are flailing at it or guessing between that offering and his well-known knuckle curve. What we’re seeing right now with Walker Buehler is a pitcher who seems to have finally figured out what works best for him on the mound and how to utilize his extensive pitch mix to his advantage. He has lowered his arm slot and dropped some velocity from his arsenal, but with that, his pitches are moving more and he’s able to live in the chase zone more than over the heart of the plate, driving his groundball and strikeout rates up in the process. Buehler seems to have turned the corner and has stepped into his role as the number two starter of the Boston Red Sox with success. If he keeps this trajectory up, his contract will look like one of the best deals of the offseason... and could warrant some serious contract extension discussions. View full article

I would have targeted starting pitching on a list this far out from the deadline even if Priester was still in the organization. I don't think I'd compare him to any, possibly all, of the starters listed here. You could maybe argue Rocker, but I'd rather have Rocker's ceiling than Priester, even with the early returns from Milwaukee.