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By Mike Cole
Contributing Sports Writer
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Few teams have as much uncertainty across the board as the Boston Red Sox ahead of the MLB trade deadline. A lot of the lingering questions that remain centered around Jarren Duran.
The Red Sox will have to make a decision on the outfielder ahead of Thursday's MLB trade deadline. The case for and against trading him are both clear and understandable. Boston has an outfield surplus that it won't be able to magically solve this year and beyond. Then again, Durran has turned himself into a valuable big leaguer on an affordable contract.
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Boston also wants to compete this season but is building toward the future. Keeping Duran helps in the short term and trading him would help build for the long term. At this rate, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow can't afford to rule out anything, and it sounds like that's how he's operating.
The Athletic's Jim Bowden reported Tuesday that the Sox are still listening on offers around Duran despite other reports that indicated he'd be staying put.
"The Red Sox have been discussing Jarren Duran with several teams -- not because they necessarily want to trade him but because they like the outfield of Wilyer Abreu in right, Ceddanne Rafaela in center and Roman Anthony in left field, and Duran should not be a full-time DH at his age," Bowden wrote for The Athletic.
"If the Red Sox trade him, it will be for a starting pitcher and perhaps a first baseman if they can find the right deal."
That last "if" is a huge one. The Red Sox would have to thread the needle if they were going to trade Durran and still try to compete this season, which they absolutely should be doing based on how they've publicly positioned themselves. But there aren't a lot of great options that satisfy short- and long-term needs at either pitcher or first base, as Bowden lays out.
The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies are two teams that would make sense for Durran and have been tied to him to some extent during baseball's trade season. But the Red Sox shouldn't be looking to add a rental like San Diego's Dylan Cease, and it's hard to believe Philly would part from its rotation with World Series aspirations. Maybe prospect Mick Abel is a worthwhile long-term investment, but the Red Sox almost certainly would be hurting this season's chances by making that deal.
These sorts of intricacies probably point to Durran staying put, but it sounds like they aren't ruling out anything yet.
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