The Red Sox announced that they have agreed to a one-year deal with outfielder Jarren Duran for the 2026 season. MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith reports that Duran will earn $7.7MM in 2026, with another $75K available in bonus money.
The move technically counts as an arbitration-avoiding signing since Duran is under arb control through 2028, though the Red Sox signed him to a one-year deal last winter that contained an $8MM club option for 2026. Boston has now declined that option, paid Duran a $100K buyout, and then inked this new deal that will ultimately save the club a bit of money. The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey reports that Duran will earn a $25K bonus if he reaches 450 plate appearances, and then another $25K for each of the 500-PA and 550-PA thresholds.
MLB Trade Rumors’ Matt Swartz projected Duran for an $8.4MM salary in his second winter of arb-eligibility, but going to a hearing never seemed likely due to the existence of Boston’s club option. Duran is a Super Two player and thus has four arb years instead of the usual three, so he should continue to earn significant raises in his arbitration years if he keeps producing consistent results.
Duran hit .256/.332/.442 with 16 homers and 24 steals over 696 PA this season, and led the American League with 13 triples. While a 111 wRC+ and 3.9 fWAR are more than respectable, it did represent a notable step back from the 131 wRC+ and 6.8 fWAR that Duran posted in 2024.
Beyond his on-field results, the most notable aspect of Duran’s 2025 campaign have been the persistent trade rumors that have followed the outfielder for a few years now. With Roman Anthony emerging as a force in his rookie year, there has been even more speculation that the Sox might trade from their outfield surplus (i.e. Duran, Wilyer Abreu, or perhaps Ceddanne Rafaela) to address other roster needs, likely starting pitching. The existence of the club option means that the Red Sox probably had to get some kind of resolution on Duran’s 2026 salary done relatively quickly, yet this early settlement might also hint that the Sox wanted to remove one wrinkle in advance of any upcoming trade talks.
Trade him for pitching
Sign King
I agree sign King , drive Duran to the airport
Trade for Peralta or Ryan.. sign King plus Pete Alonso and Suarez..: put Mayers at SS if Story walk
Hope this doesn’t mean he’s staying
cre – I like Mark’s suggestion that Rafaela may be traded, although unlikely any team will be willing to take on his contract..
But if there’s one surplus the Red Sox have, it’s outfield defense. They have four very solid outfield gloves, therefore trading the worst hitter of the four would make sense. I doubt it happens though.
Why would teams be hesitant to take on his contract? It’s 6 years and $44M in guaranteed money, with an option for a 7th year. That’s beyond reasonable.
100% beyond reasonable
And only somebody who knows incredibly little about how to win in baseball, like Master Troll Fever, would suggest to just trade the guy with the worst bat when that guy is also the best CF in the AL and maybe in the top couple of players in defensive contribution across all positions in all of MLB, with the ability to continue to work on developing his offense.
Even the Marlins might trade a pitcher for Duran.
maine – Because glove-only players typically don’t make nearly $8M annually.
Myles Straw was making just $1.7M at Age 27.
Myles Straw is a terrible comparison. In one season Ceddanne has more homers than Straw’s career. In less than 1/2 the amount of games, Ceddanne has 7.4 war to Straw’s 10.3.
I don’t like Ceddanne all that much. I think he’s a JBJ type, great defense, light hitting. But Ceddanne is a silver slugger compared to Straw.
In 2025, Ceddanne’s war was 1.6 better.
Straw
Steve – First of all, Bloom was never GM …. he was POBO.
Secondly, some of my favorite players are Casas, Duran and Houck … all called up under Bloom.
Thirdly, most of the guys called up under Bloom are Dombrowski guys ….. and I’m a huge Dombrowski supporter.
Needless to say, your accusation has zero validity and makes you look even sillier.
Steve – Since his MLB debut August 28, 2023 he has the 7th-lowest OPS of all qualified MLB players and his OPS+ is well below replacement level (which is 100).
He also was the 2nd-worst hitter in MLB during the second half of the season, with a .587 OPS.
But sure, call him an “average” bat!. LOL!!!
Rafaela made $1.25M last year (age 24) and will make $2.25M in 2026 (age 25).
Bloom was CBO actually
Steve – You must have missed all the times I praised Bloom for many of his prospects, the Vazquez trade, the Pivetta trade, etc.
But he absolutely sucked when it came to free agent signings, evaluating MLB players, negotiating, etc.
Steve – Try using your brain for once, good players often don’t get enough playing time either for various reasons (ie: injury, blocked on the depth chart, kept in the minors for service time manipulation, etc).
And they don’t make scanners big enough for my brain.
Fever he just won a gold glove in centerfield? You think his contract is still too expensive? He’s still young too.
There would be many suitors with that contract. His being the only righty bat though is why he won’t be traded. If the team keeps both Bregman and Story and then gets a right handed bopper for first, they won’t have to trade an outfielder. As Sox fans know, injuries are part of the equation. Wild card is “the Password” He could be the righty bat replacing Rafaela or he with Casas and others could be dealt for pitching.
Gary – Today’s game makes it harder to carry glove-only players on the roster, with the very short bench and all.
Yes my hope is that he continues to improve and then the contract becomes a non-issue!
dewey – Abreu’s numbers vs LHP is virtually identical to Rafaela’s, and Roman’s is way better. Only Duran had really poor numbers vs LHP this season.
Why the hate for Duran? I’d keep him over Abreu or Rafaela.
Hate ? No one hates Duran.
But to trade from the surplus, I’d rather trade the guy who’s 30 and his game is speed, which will inevitably slow down.
Sell high and I was a huge proponent of trading him last winter after his amazing year.
That drop off is going to cost us later, And if they don’t trade him this winter.., wow that would be very unfortunate.
Gary – I would agree with you if we knew for certain the Sox weren’t going to contend the next 2-3 years.
But assuming they will contend next season and the year after, Duran is the guy you want to keep. Bat him leadoff in front of Roman and Duran scores 100 runs easily.
BTW – He’s not 30 until next September.
Those who know me from my posts, know I am not a Fan of Cora…. but I do agree with him on the fact that Abreu is a platoon player who can’t hit LHP,,,,, His swing is too long and although he has power and plays RF well…. he is the one to trade, not Duran. Duran is a leader on this team, He is a beast on the bases, just by the threat of him running and taking the extra base etc…. all things aside he provides better balance to the roster than Abreu who is very one dimensional as an offensive player and extremely streaky. Duran needs to work extremely hard at effectively learning to bunt for hits in spring training to utilize his speed more…. especially against lefties who are falling off the mound towards 3B.
Hey Coop – I agree with you, hes also a dying breed of leadoff hitter that i really enjoy watching create havoc on the bases. Unfortunately his trade value, while not at its peak, is still great enough to bring back a serious SP.
Coop, how long do you think .256 batting Duran will keep up with that speed? You know he’s going to want to get paid in two years and it will be for everything he’s provided up to then, including his monster 24 season.
Plus, I think at his age that batting average may drop a little rather than improve.
So your .246 hitting left fielder will want $20 million a year times three years and will be impossible to trade as a free agent.
Coop – Abreu has a .676 OPS against LHP this year.
Rafaela has a .679 OPS against LHP this year.
Considering how bad a hitter Rafaela was overall after the All Star break, do you really want to go into next season with the possibility Rafaela puts up a .600 or less OPS? The team offense just isn’t good enough to carry a bat like that.
Talk about penny-pinching. The Red Sox decline an $8 mill. option in favor of a $100k buyout and then proceed to sign him to a $7.7 mill. contract (plus bonuses). They’ll net between $125k and $200k depending on how the bonuses work out.
Yep, I’ll take this time to mention that the owners of the Red Sox make a metric ton of money from the team. Quibbling over 200k is chump change considering what they paid Duran for the value he provided during the 2024 season.
Did it ever occur you you fans who have some pathological need to perpetually bash everything the team FO and ownership does that while the “penny pinching” here doesn’t mean much to the Sox it could be a bit more significant to a potential trade partner this winter if they look to trade him?
If the Red Sox were concerned about Duran’s salary, they could always include some money in the trade. As I said in my previous comment, the Sox make FSG a ton of money. If they care about 4MM (if he won MVP, and even then 12MM for an MVP? Wow, what a steal!) for a player of Duran’s caliber, that’s concerning.
Or that small amount the difference in staying under the tax threshold? Duran did not have to sign it so why should us fans worry about it?
That wouldn’t account for the bonus clauses in the option. Bottom line is he’s now more attractive a target for a budget conscious team to consider. That’s not a bad thing.
King – i think thats really the salient point here. He’s now affordable to all those small market teams that made the playoffs (Guardians, Mariners, Reds) who need offense and have surplus SP
Players and agents notice these things, and the net effect is to engender a lack of trust in the organization.
That’s a pretty silly take vis a vie agents not trusting the organszation considering Duran and his agent obviously chose to sign this contract with the sox. Duran didn’t have to sign the contract if he had a problem with it.
It’s a lot more complex than that. He also had escalators off of the $8M that could increase it by another $150k based on plate appearances, It could have also gone as high as $12M for winning MVP (and varying degrees in-between depending on placement in MVP voting).
Most interestingly though, to me at least, is the option would have been void if he was traded this offseason and he would have been arb eligible on his new team. This guarantees the contract for next year even if he’s traded. He made $3.85M this year, so was his 2025 good enough to get him this much in arbitration? I legitimately don’t know.
@mainsox, the primary reason i can see this being useful is it guarantees a trade partner what the cost of the player is and that they don’t have to have an arbitration fight. I am almost certain this means he is on the block and other teams have asked about his option and expressed concern for the arb process. Could mean he is being moved soon, or just prepping for it later this off-season.
Bob, what is surprising to me is there are no trade kickers or team restrictions on where he could be dealt.
He’s still an arbitration eligible player and therefore doesn’t have the leverage to push for things like that in a contract.
Good color, mainesox. Under that thinking, the new contract gives Duran certainty in the event of a trade. I’m not sure what the Red Sox save besides $125k-$200k in the event he isn’t traded. Given his huge home-away splits, I’m not sure he’s worth $8 mill.-ish to someone else.
He had fairly significant home/away splits this year, but they aren’t that significant for his career.
And he just put up 4 WAR in a “down” year, and more than 13 WAR over the last three years; teams pay roughly $8M per 1 WAR in free agency, so even if you expect regression on a different team, he’s still easily worth a lot more than what he’ll be paid.
Yes, Duran is almost certainly on the trade block. There are scenarios in which another team really wants Abreu or Rafaela instead of Duran, but the best Red Sox roster for 2026-2028 has Anthony, Rafaela, and Abreu starting in the outfield. Duran’s speed is wasted in LF, but Rafaela’s superior glove means that Duran shouldn’t be playing CF for the Red Sox.
If they hadn’t signed him to this new deal, they would presumably have exercised the option this week. Would a trade still have voided the contract after that? Not sure it makes a difference in that respect.
Yes, regardless of whether they exercised their option on him, it would have been void in the event of a trade.
Also, I disagree that their best roster is without Duran on it. Duran is by far a superior offensive player to Ceddanne, and as he showed last year, he can be a near-elite defender in CF himself. Not on Ceddanne’s level of course, no one is, but close enough that the offense more than makes up the difference.
While there was a huge offensive gap between the two in 2024, that narrowed to under 20 runs in 2025 and my expectation would be ~10 runs for 2026.
Defense is a bit harder to judge. I agree they were close in 2024, but Rafaela took a large step forward this year while Duran took a step backward. Part of that was the change in positions, of course, which makes it particularly tough to estimate, but Rafaela was *that* good in CF this year. Probably a +15 run advantage going forward.
I won’t argue too hard if you believe Duran’s offensive advantage is larger than that. Really depends on how they age, we KNOW the offensive gap was larger in 2024-2025. But at the same time, a team that has both players will put Rafaela in CF — obviously — and that detracts from Duran’s value.
When a player is more valuable to another team than to his current team, and you make a great case for that, then a trade is appropriate. The alternative I guess would be to trade Rafaela and keep Duran, but the age and contract situation argue for the young/cheap Rafaela over the guy who while still in his prime probably only has a few elite years left.
I would have to believe that the certainty of this contract, minus any escalators, and the under $8m number makes him tradeable, vis a vis his on-field talent, to practically every mlb team.
Moreover, you would have to assume that his name came up at the deadline back in august, and the Sox have an idea of his trade market already, to make this move rather than a desire to save $125k.
My spidey-senses are looking more at a playoff ready team than a rebuilding team.because Duran is 29yo.
I am going to take a guess and say if he’s traded its going to be Seattle or Milwaukee:
Logan Gilbert (28yo and $11.5m), or,
Freddy Peralta (29yo and $8m)
Wishful thinking I know, but a boy can dream
The gap between the two may end up closer than I allowed, but even with Duran having his worst season with the bat (since becoming an everyday guy) and Ceddanne having a breakout season defensively they were essentially tied (Duran was 0.1 WAR ahead). Move Duran over to CF and the positional adjustment alone puts him a full win ahead of Ceddanne, even under those circumstances. If Duran bounces back a bit offensively and/or Ceddanne regresses defensively (or Duran is well above average again in CF), and the gap gets even wider. Ceddanne would have to take a big step forward with the bat, or Duran would have to regress significantly, for them to have equal value in CF.
I fully recognize the team control and age aspects (and those are what probably makes their value similar in a trade), but even after trading an outfielder the Sox have a potential logjam to deal with – Password is more or less major league ready, and Campbell is looking like his best spot is going to be in the OF at this point too. So trading away a guy with more team control and hanging onto a guy who is better but has less control, isn’t as harmful as it otherwise would be.
@Sad.Sox 3
Seattle isn’t in a position to trade their starters. They have zero depth behind them. They lost Gilbert, Kirby and Miller for long stretches of the season last year and it hurt them pretty badly. All three had down years for them and would be underselling. There are two potential replacement starters in the wings, but they should only be getting their feet wet in 26, not carry a playoff hopeful season load. L.Castillo is the only stater that might be moved, mostly for the money. If Seattle is out by the deadline, or next off-season, is when I’d look for some trade from the rotation.
Bob – you could be right, the injuries among the SP corps is a concern for Seattle. They are high on their pitching depth and DiPoto makes some weird deals, not sure if saving the $3.5m means anything to them or not. But, theyre probably gonna lose Suarez and need to make up the offense somewhere, even if its in smaller increments than what Suarez provided
Pretty sure Duran signed the contract..
I don’t really understand the club option for someone who is still arbitration eligible.
So if he had a really good 2025 season the Sox would have gotten him at a discount price of $8M, and if he didn’t have a really good season (which he didn’t) the team can sign him for less than the $8M. Sounds like it was a very good deal for the team no matter what.
He had escalators in his contract that would have pushed the option up if he hit them. If he repeated his 2024 season the option would have gone to 10.5M which is about the same he may have gotten in arbitration.
The main point of the club option was so that the post-arb-filing deal they made with him wouldn’t be a “1-year deal.” The significance of it not being a one-year deal technically is twofold:
1. it allows them to claim that they are sticking by their “file-and-trial” policy for arbitration (i.e. no one-year deals after the arb filing deadline), since it was a “multi-year” contract they agreed to and not just a 2025 salary.
2. It does not count toward arbitration “precedent”. One-year deals agreed to by teams and arb-eligible players are considered by arbitrators as precedent when ruling (and, thus, teams and agents when filing their numbers). Since this was technically a multi-year contract, Duran’s $3,750,000 in 2025 won’t impact their dealings with a similar player in their first arb season in the future.
Those incentives are going to have Duran hungry like the wolf to get to them.
Duran agreed to it….so he must be okay with it.
The Red Sox have a surplus of OF. They aren’t going to be able to move Yoshida’s contract unless they eat payroll or package a good prospect with him. The guy is a DH unless they tell him to work at 1B this off season and see if can play somewhere.
Duran or Abreu are the most likely guys getting moved. It may come down to who is more desirable. Dombrowski may come for Duran since he drafted him for the Red Sox. I just don’t know if there is a match and the Phillies could use him.
Garcia is also on the cusp.
There is no reason the Red Sox can’t position themselves to be a strong contender. They have a lot of money freed up and prospects to get the pieces they need. Maybe they make a run at one of Seattle’s starters, Gore or go sign a guy like King or Cease. I don’t think they have the currency to go get a Skenes but every team’s podcast group, Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, etc… I have seen a few trying to make a case how they can get Skenes for each of those team.
To position as a strong contender, they need to upgrade from Yoshida to Schwarber (or perhaps Alonso) as well as the other moves. Trading Duran merely clears the OF logjam.
Agreed that trading Abreu would be an alternative, but I keep hearing Duran’s name brought up, so the beat reporters seem to think they are leaning that way.
I just don’t see a perfect trade partner for him. Sox have more pitching depth than about every team so they need a very solid 2 or 1b. Who would that be? MIN has a lot of close to ready outfielders so they don’t make sense. The Sox have a 40 man crunch as it is. The reds amd pirates don’t make sense because the starter they can offer isn’t moving the needle.
Seattle has a few ready or near ready SS/2B. Notably M.Arroyo and C.Young.
Sorry, i misunderstood your comment, you meant #2 starter and 1B. Nope, Seattle doesn’t make sense unless L.Castillo rumors get brought up again.
Meant 1 b meaning someone like Crocett. They don’t need a first baseman. Believe they platoon with Romy. Maybe Durran for Skubil. That might work, but for only one year could not be a good fit. Maybe for Gore, maybe for one of Seattles starters
@wvsteve,
Seattle isn’t in a position to trade their starters. They have zero depth behind them. They lost Gilbert, Kirby and Miller for long stretches of the season last year and it hurt them pretty badly. All three had down years for them and would be underselling. There are two potential replacement starters in the wings, but they should only be getting their feet wet in 26, not carry a playoff hopeful season load. L.Castillo is the only stater that might be moved, mostly for the money. If Seattle is out by the deadline, or next off-season, is when I’d look for some trade from the rotation.
I understand. Seattle has a great rotation, but very few teams who are trying to compete can give up a very good starter. I’m a pirates fan, and the only starter they should trade is Keller but he isn’t bringing back Duran or Aberu. Seattle had a great season. If they bring Naylor and Polanco back and maybe trade one of their near ready prospects to bring back another bat they will be right back in it.
Man, I love the kid and his fire. He’s the heart and soul of this imperfect team. But I think that’s pretty much what he is… imperfect.
He gets discombobulated on deep flyballs, has a tendency for hyper-aggressive baserunning and is nothing more than a guess-hitter vs LHP. So frustrating to watch.
But… he’s fast, has pretty decent power and can play CF. He’ll surely be a key part of a trade package that nets the Sox a solid SP. I’ll miss him, but then again, I won’t.
Very tradeable. Make it happen
I, as a Dodger fan, have interest in any of those OFers if we don’t sign Tucker.
Astros would trade Paredes (take 3rd if Bregman doesn’t resign) for Duran. Help both clubs as we have a surplus of infielders and need a LH outfield bat and this would give Boston a solid pull hitting 3B that plays pretty good defense.
Why would Duran agree to this? His team option was worth more, so this is a pay cut. And if the team doesn’t pick up the option, he goes to arbitration which was likely to be similar or more, plus the buyout.
I don’t see how this is anything other than a pay cut for him.
It seems to me based on the needs that the most logical moves are to trade for Greene, sign another starter for the three slot to move Bello to 4 and let the rest compete for the 5th slot and bullpen. Use excess for depth and trades. You drastically improve the rotation and bullpen at the same time.
Phase 2 is to see if the payroll will withstand holding onto Bregman while signing for a premier power bat, or losing Bregman and promoting from within for third and needing to sign at least 2 big bats by creating room through further trades.
That may seem like a lot of moving parts for a team that has become notoriously slow to move and not very daring when it does.
The good news is that the same problems we have had for several years still remain so it shouldn’t be a surprise to management what they need.
Red Sox lineup 2026
1. (L) Roman Anthony – LF
2. (R) Alex Bregman – 3B
3. (L) Kyle Schwarber – DH
4. (R) Pete Alonso – 1B
5. (L) Wilyer Abreu – RF
6. (R) Trevor Story – SS
7. (L) Marcelo Mayer – 2B
8. (R) Ceddanne Rafaela – CF
9. (R) Carlos Narvaez – C
Reserves
1. (R) Romy Gonzalez
2. (R) Kristian Campbell
3. (R) Connor Wong
4. (R) Jhostynxon Garcia
Pitchers
1. Garrett Crochet – LHP
2. Freddy Peralta – RHP / Joe Ryan – RHP
3. Brayan Bello – RHP
4. Peyton Tolle – LHP
5. Connelly Early – LHP
Relief Pitchers
1. Justin Slaten – RHp
2. Patrick Sandoval – LHP
3. Kyle Harrison – LHP
4. Zack Kelly – RHP
5. Justin Wilson – LHP (need to resign)
6. Garrett Whitlock – RHP (8th inning)
7. Aroldis Chapman – LHP (Closer)
Traded Players:
1. Jaren Duran
2. Masataka Yoshida
Not Resigned / Optioned
1. Nate Eaton
2. Rob Refsnyder
3. Nick Sogard
4. David Hamilton
5. Nathaniel Lowe
6. Steven Matz
7. Dustin May
8. Hunter Dobbins
9. Lucas Giolito
The Red Sox are not going to sign Pete Alonso. Ain’t happening no way, no how.
Not sure how I left it out, but Casas gets traded as well. Why do you feel the Sox would not go after Pete?
God forbid you have 150 RBI guy in the lineup that hits for an average and would crush at Fenway.
Good player and he’d fit on the Sox, but I think someone else will step up and pay him way more.
Breslow realizes we need to spend quite a bit for the number two starter instead of quite a bit for a first baseman. Just my two cents.
Peyton Tolle is not ready.
100% agree with you, At this point I think Tolle is a high leverage Relief pitcher… he doesn’t have enough quality secondary pitches to be a Starter and Velocity Dips when the pitch count increases.
Tolle is absolutely a started in this league and whether he is up at the beginning of the year or comes up a little later, he starts in this rotation throughout the year. As a #4, he doesn’t need to be perfect.
Just going to keep posting it. This move makes it pretty clear they are trading Duran (hopefully for Peralta).
Sweet The Angry Lizard is a good sparkplug. I see Bo Bichette at SS, Story to 2b, Mayer at 3b, Casas at 1b, Abreu RF, Rafaela CF, Anthony in LF, Duran the 4th OF/UT, Nav C.
Isn’t Bichette a worse fielding SS than Story?
yes
Steve – i dont think anyone wants to give up surplus pitching, but if you look at what the Mariners have in Woo, Kirby, Miller and Hancock who are all younger than Gilbert they may be willing to trade for a cheap source of top of the lineup offense. They are probably gonna take a run at Naylor, but theres no certainity to signing him, and Polanco is both older and more expensive than Duran. You have to give something to get something….
Good. They need him and he needs them. Now he just needs a leader.