The Padres’ reported interest in Jarren Duran has drawn plenty of attention, but Sean McAdam of MassLive.com downplays the potential fit between the two clubs. McAdam writes that he, too, has heard the Friars have checked in on Duran, but the Sox aren’t shopping the 2024 All-Star. With a crowded outfield mix and uber-prospect Roman Anthony seemingly ready for an MLB look, the Sox aren’t turning interested parties away when they inquire about Duran, but there’s an understandably high asking price.
With regard to the Padres specifically, McAdam touches on some of the difficulties regarding the fit that Darragh McDonald and I discussed on this week’s episode of the MLBTR Podcast. The Red Sox are likely to want immediate MLB help at either the infield corners or in the starting rotation, and San Diego is lacking in those areas. Their top two starters, Dylan Cease and Michael King, are free agents at season’s end. They don’t have any high-end, MLB-ready pitching prospects around which to build a deal, nor do they have the type of controllable corner infield help Boston would covet. The Padres’ infield is composed of expensive veterans, all of whom except Luis Arraez are on long-term deals; Arraez, a free agent at season’s end, isn’t going to get the ball rolling in talks when Duran is controlled through 2028.
The Padres do have two of MLB’s very best prospects in shortstop Leo De Vries and catcher Ethan Salas, but both are teenagers who are years from being ready for the majors. They’re also widely viewed as untouchable in trades, or close to it. As such, even if the Red Sox got to the point where they were serious about shopping Duran around, it seems likely that another outfield-needy team would be able to put together a more compelling package to sway the Sox.
Short-term help at the corner infield wouldn’t be a need at Fenway Park if the Sox had a healthy Triston Casas who was hitting as he did in 2023-24, when he batted a combined .256/.357/.480 (126 wRC+) with 37 homers in 745 plate appearances. Casas struggled for much of this season’s first three weeks, however, and suffered a season-ending knee injury when he’d begun to show signs of breaking out of that slump (.261/.414/.522 in eight games leading up to the injury).
Casas chatted with Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic about the injury, his timeline for a recovery and both the physical and mental difficulties of going through a rehab process that’ll span 10 or more months. An exact timeline hasn’t yet been established, but Casas said no doctors have told him to expect a yearlong absence to this point. He’s working toward a goal of being ready for next year’s spring training. For now, he’s still on crutches for at least two more weeks.
Casas calls the ruptured patellar tendon the biggest physical challenge he’s had to overcome in his career but noted that last year’s rib cage fractures may have been more mentally taxing. With that injury, he felt strong but had to simply wait to allow his ribs to heal before being cleared to swing at full strength, whereas he has more measured checkpoints and benchmarks in his rehab with the current injury. He added that former Red Sox right-hander Garrett Richards, who also suffered a ruptured patellar tendon late in his career, has reached out and been a valuable mentor as he navigates the early stages of his rehab. Sox fans, in particular, will want to check out McCaffrey’s piece for several thoughtful quotes from Casas about the injury, his rehab and his general outlook as he sets off on a long road to recovery.
Turning to the starting pitching group, the Sox optioned Richard Fitts earlier this week. Chris Cotillo of MassLive was among those to relay that Hunter Dobbins will draw into the rotation now. Various pitching injuries have thrust Dobbins to the majors this year and he has managed to perform decently in his first big league action. He has logged 44 1/3 innings this year over seven starts and two relief appearances, having allowed 4.06 earned runs per nine. His 19.6% strikeout rate is a bit low but he has only walked 5.6% of batters faced while getting grounders on 44.3% of balls in play.
Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito have the other four rotation spots for now. Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval and Chris Murphy are all on the injured list and could rejoin the rotation mix at some point. Sandoval, who had UCL surgery last year, tells Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he has thrown six bullpens but still isn’t close to facing live hitters. Crawford is on the IL due to knee discomfort but is now also dealing with wrist pain, per Christopher Smith of MassLive. Houck is on the shelf due to a flexor pronator strain and is still at the playing catch stage, per Smith. Murphy had Tommy John surgery in April of last year and his current status is unclear.
Just for due diligence, and in case main stream media wants to know, I did “check in” and have “internal discussions” about acquiring Tom Brady’s ex, Giselle Bundchen, 2 days ago.
I respect that choice, but I’ll go with Jennifer Love Hewitt!
She’s washed up.. lost some velocity on her fastball.
So, this post did exactly what it was hoping to do, draw in disgruntled Sox fans to comment.Duran trade isn’t happenning.
Now on to other news…..the Sox lead MLB in errors. Get thrown out on the bases at an alarming rate. Can not play situational baseball. Strike out at a record setting pace. Don’t allow their pitchers any leeway in their pitch selection. Play their starters put of position practically every day. Tell there franchise star prospect he cant hit Yusei Kikuchi. Finally, have no idea how to use their pitching, as evidenced by the manager not using Criswell as long reliever in today’s game.
The roster was conducted poorly by Breslow, and Cora manages from reading the Analytics script rather than one iota of informed baseball decision making.
Other than that things look pretty good.
And it worked!
Did it though?!?!?! Hahahaha, yes the won the battle, but are losing the war!
Sad – The season is probably still a lost cause, but there’s been some good signs recently because Cora is finally listening to me.
1) Today he did NOT bring in Chapman to pitch the 9th in a tie game
2) He is no longer forcing KC to play first base
3) He is batting KC around the bottom of the lineup, rather than cleanup
4) He finally chewed out Rafaela after his horrendous 2-run throw
Baby steps, baby steps …..
Campbell has his contract and should be sent down to focus. He initially showed flashes but recently more than anything else he’s shown he’s not ready. Both sides of the ball need addressing and Worcester is the place with no pressure.
dewey – One of many things Cora doesn’t realize, last year KC flew up three levels in the farm system.
Only 40 games in High A.
Only 56 games in AA.
Only 19 games in AAA.
You know what that means?
At each of those levels, he didn’t play enough games for opponents to have the time to make adjustments.
Which means this year is the very first time he’s had to face opponents that have been able to quickly get a book on him …. and he’s never had to make adjustments before, until now.
This is the kind of critical thinking that Cora lacks unfortunately.
Fever, agree but I’m not sure if the decision to continue to play Campbell is Cora’s alone. He needs to focus with little pressure and in Boston is not the place. He’s simply showing his age. Nothing wrong with that but when your offensive challenges make your defensive offensive to watch, it’s time to reset.
dewey – Funny thing about Sox decisions, Cora often says “group decision” ….. except when it’s convenient for him, like the Devers 3B promise was apparently only a Bloom decision. LOL
As for KC, he always seems to have a look on his face like a deer in headlights …. not sure if that’s his normal face, or if it’s a sign of being overwhelmed.
FPG
The starting rotation has been the biggest disappointment of the season. As bad as Giolito was yesterday,it probably was only the 4th or 5th worst start for a Sox pitcher this season. Houck,Fitts comes to mind. If Pivetta had accepted the Q.O. instead of signing Buehler?? I wanted the Sox to sign one of the big 3 pitching F.A’s Fried,Burnes,or Snell. Crazy only Fried has performed well. With the other 2 down for who knows how long. Not sure why I included all that but if we cannot get decent starting pitching, nothing else really matters. It’s over using a pretty good bullpen. The injuries, Devers fiasco,Story, Campbell,even the bad defense,all take a backseat to the starting pitching. IMO. With that said,hears hoping we take 2 out of 3 from the yanks
cdc – I wouldn’t lump in Fitts, he was rushed back without having a proper number of rehab starts in the minors. Poor guy had like a 2.89 career ERA before that last start, and yet he hasn’t had a win.
But you’re right, Sox starting pitchers are 7th-worst in MLB. I agree with you they need to improve the rotation, if they do pull the trigger on an outfielder I hope it brings back a solid young pitcher.
Speaking of Fried, I am very glad he’s pitching today and therefore will miss the weekend series. He may even miss the series in Fenway.
Fair on Fitts,though he did have that 3 inning stint prior to his last start. He was pitching decent before his injury. I thought the rotation with the additions of Crochet, Buehler,along with improved depth was going to be a strength of the team, not a weakness. I don’t believe we can blame Cora for the lack of performance from the staff , though he has come up short in other crucial areas.
“Finally, have no idea how to use their pitching, as evidenced by the manager not using Criswell as long reliever in today’s game.”
While I don’t necessarily disagree with you in general, this is an odd time to make that comment.
The Red Sox are off tomorrow, so they didn’t need to save the bullpen. Not only that the bullpen went 7 and 1/3 innings and only gave up two runs.
And Criswell won the game.
Ghost – Yep.
And Cora usually uses Chapman in the top of the 9th when the game is tied, I was very happy to see he didn’t this time.
Cora is finally learning, don’t burn Chapman in the 9th if you don’t have the lead.
Ghosts – yes, it worked in yesterday’s game. But more often than not, especially with this bullpen, you’re asking 4 guys to be good instead of just one. More often than not, it doesn’t work.
Also, you can spin this a few ways,some will certainly say Cora was showing his team he was still fighting for them, but to me it seemed more desperate. Cora trying to manage like it was a WS game to save face over getting beat up by a terrible Angels team at home.
Sad – The easy schedule is now over. The rest of the month it’s 6 vs Yanks and 12 vs Seattle, SF, Tampa and Toronto.
Sox are 6 losses back in the Wild Card already, and have a very tough schedule thru August 24th. Not looking good at all.
FPG- you know before the season started I wanted Pete Alonso, not Bregman. Not to detract from what Bregman did before the injury, but our lineup would currently be (without hindsight):
Duran (CF)
Story (DH)
Devers (3B)
Alonso (1B)
Abreu (RF)
Narvaez/Wong (C)
Anthony (LF)
Raffaele/Campbell (2B)
Mayer (SS)
Bench: Hamilton. Catcher, Yoshida
Goodbye: Toro and Gonzalez
And, we probably still have the worst fielding team, but we’d be scoring a helluva lot more runs!!
SS3
Casas? Trade ? Would have been moving him with very low value. Nobody thought he would start the season as poorly as he did. There was some expectation of him returning to his 2nd half rookie form. Of course an injury may have been expected. Agreed , Alonso sure would look good manning 1st now. Alonso does have an opt-out after this season but his price has gone way up.
Will Rafael Devers have a statue in Boston when his career is over? Or is he just a Temu version of the beloved Big Papi, with glaring character and makeup issues, and non-existent English speaking skills?
I hate to say it but it depends on how the Red Sox finish. He has one World Series ring. IF he matures and gets another 1 or 2 and makes something of an impact in the playoffs he could. After this horrible start he is looking like Big Papi light. It is a question of putting enough around him to get to the playoffs and see what an older Devers does.
Devers and Duran to SD (win now)
Salas, DeVries and Roman to Pit
Skenes and Reynolds to Bos
Close. But prefer DeVries, Oneil Cruz, Kolek and Bogaerts to Boston, Devers, Salas, Tavares Tears and Kash Mayfield to Pitt, Skenes, Narvaez and Duran to SD. Makie it happen!
You must be trolling Brew. As a Sox fan, why would they do that?
not trolling dewey, just having fun in dreamland.
I want Skenes on my team too.
LOL. I remember in college learning Strat-O-Matic and picking my roster which was preferable to playing teams. I still remember trying to time when I would shock others and pick Dave Stapleton who came up the year before and was phenomenal. Non-Sox fans has no idea who he was and the only issue was the 125% use limitation meaning I had to watch his plate appearances. Too much AI and computer stats today that take the fun out of the surprise picks.
So the Sox trade Devers, Duran and Roman Anthony for Skenes and Reynolds? Hell no!
All in the span of three years:
– Casas cracked a rib swinging a bat.
– Ruptured a tendon running to first base.
– Should inflammation ended his 2023 season
– He even missed time for a tooth ache.
His picture should be displayed in the dictionary under ‘injury prone’.
It’s unfortunate but he will never be the 35 HR guy they want him to be
Machado for Devers and Duran? Bregman to second base. Kristian Cambell to first. Call up DeVries, move Bogaerts to third.
Manny Machado is a villain in Boston.
I can understand that but Machado is a great player, trade makes some sense if the Padres really like DeVries.
I dont know that you could trade Machado dor Devers though, both great hitters, both beloved by their respective teams. It doesnt make sense from that standpoint.
That proposal makes the Red Sox a worse team while increasing their payroll.
Trades have to be two sided and why would Boston want no matter his abilities, a player so hated in New England for ruining the chances of their beloved Pedie, the undersized underdog who if not for a dirty slide would likely eventually be in Cooperstown?
dewey – I think Pedroia still has a decent chance for the hall.
Worst proposal I’ve heard.
As i said in a different thread: send Campbell down to reset and get his head right and bring up Anthony. Put Anthony in Left or Center and let Ceddane play 2B. The team needs an offensive spark badly
I think Campbell could use a reset, but moving Rafaela onto the diamond will hurt the defense tremendously, and it’s already (and inexplicably) bad.
I agree on the sending Campbell down but unless there is a trade or another injury, it shows how ownership looks more at a computer seeking leverage moves than it does the actual roster. Roman should have been playing first base full time in Worcester the day after Casas got hurt. Ceddane in my view is good at second but great in center (his recent throw aside).
The defense is already horrendous and the offense can’t keep up, maybe at least sparking the offense will help offset the terrible fielding
Excellent take, really wild at 53 errors leading the majors. My god
Duran and Crawford for Salas, Campusano (Who’s been getting reps at 1st), Peralta, Rodriguez (who could help the Sox pen this year), Fountain, and Pena.
That throw was 1/3 of the way towards 3B, not sure when I’ve seen a worse one, but it’s been a few….
There shouldn’t be commas around “too.” This is an archaic rule.