Both the Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox have failed to live up to their preseason expectations so far this year. At the same time, both teams still see themselves as contenders for playoff positions. According to Braves top baseball exec Alex Anthopoulus, speaking in a radio interview on Thursday, the Braves will emphatically not be “sellers” at the trade deadline.
Even with his team trailing the final National League Wild Card spot by six games, “weâre built to win. Our expectations are to win. Our expectations are to go for it the entire time,” Anthopoulus said in the interview.
At the same time, the day after he traded Boston’s highest-paid player, designated hitter Rafael Devers, Red Sox chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow affirmed that his team was “as committed as we were six months ago to putting a winning team on the field, to competing for the division and making a deep postseason run,” and that he was not “waving the white flag on 2025.”
The Red Sox, after a 3-2 loss to Devers’ new team, the San Francisco Giants, on Saturday stood five games out of first place in the American League East, and held the final AL Wild Card spot by one-half game over the Cleveland Guardians.
Braves and Red Sox Both Finally Showing Signs of Life
Both teams showed strong signs over the past two weeks of turning their respective seasons around. The Braves heading into Sunday’s MLB slate have won seven of their last nine games. The Red Sox, even with Saturday’s narrow defeat â their 18th one-run loss of the season â have won 10 of their last 13.
So, could these two teams help each other with a trade that would address one of the Braves’ main weaknesses â offensive production from left field â while allowing the Red Sox to free up top prospect Roman Anthony to take over left field on a permanent basis?
The trade idea, proposed in a column by SI.com Braves correspondent Dave Holcomb, would have the Red Sox send the 2024 All-Star Game MVP Jarren Duran to Atlanta, where he would assume left field duties and allow the Braves to jettison current left fielder Alex Verdugo.
Duran makes an attractive trade target. Under team control until the 2029 season, he is playing on a one-year, $3.75 million contract with a club option for 2026.
He currently leads the AL in triples with eight, and led last year with 14. He also led the league in doubles with 48, while stealing 34 bases.
Atlanta Left Fielders Have Been Among Worst in MLB
The Braves lost their major offseason free agent signing, outfielder Jurickson Profar, to a suspension for performance-enhancing drug use and have been relying primarily on New York Yankees castoff Verdugo in left ever since.
Not surprisingly, Braves left fielders have been the second-worst in baseball offensively, with a combined .541 OPS on the season.
Why would the Red Sox part with Duran? A few reasons. At age 28, they could have legitimate concern that 2024 was a one-off career year for the outfielder.
In 2025, his performance has already shown signs of decline with a .717 OPS compared to last year’s .834. But mostly, the Red Sox have an outfield overcrowded with young players.
With 2024 Gold Glover and sixth-place Rookie of the Year vote getter Wilyer Abreu in right, and another defensive genius Ceddanne Rafaela in center, MLB’s No. 1 overall prospect Roman Anthony, a natural left fielder, has been shuffled from right to left to DH in his 11 big league games so far.
Anthony’s promotion effectively makes Duran expendable. And the Devers trade shows that Breslow is not squeamish about dealing away fan-favorite players.
What could the Braves send in return for Duran? Atlanta has only one prospect in the MLB Pipeline top 100. That’s lefty pitcher Cam Caminiti at No. 67.
But Caminiti’s relatively modest ranking has a lot to do with his age. Only 18 years old now, last year at 17 he was among the youngest players in the draft. But the Braves thought highly enough of his potential to make Camimiti the No. 24 overall pick.
Given Duran’s low cost and three years of team control, a package headed by Caminiti would be a fair price to pay if indeed, as Anthopoulus claims, the Braves plan to “go for it” in 2025.
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