Getty
Jarren Duran of the Boston Red Sox.
Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has made no secret of the fact that adding a frontline starting pitcher to the rotation is at the top of his offseason priority list. And there are any number of possibilities out there — from the Cincinnati Reds Hunter Greene to the Athletics’ Luis Severino to the San Francisco Giants‘ Logan Webb to pick out just a few of the names that have been linked to Boston in various trade rumors and predictions.
On Wednesday, Bleacher Report baseball expert Kerry Miller added to the growing list, predicting that a former National League Cy Young Award winner and two-time All-Star will be the power arm coming to Boston to reinforce the starting rotation behind the Red Sox’ own 2025 Cy Young candidate Garrett Crochet.
Who are we talking about?
“The ideal trade partner for Boston might be Miami, which inexplicably always seems to have a surplus of quality starting pitchers, yet hasn’t had a positive run differential since a +2 mark in 2010. (FWIW: the Marlins have the longest active streak of negative run differentials, five years longer than first runner-up Pittsburgh.),” wrote Miller.
The Marlins pitcher who has been most widely discussed as a trade candidate over the past year has been the staff ace, who spent much of this season getting back to his 2022 Cy Young form, or something like it, 30-year-old, eight-year veteran and two-time All-Star Sandy Alcantara.
Alcantara Regains Form After Tommy John Layoff
After winning the NL’s top pitching award, Alcantara found himself struggling in 2023 until his season finally ended prematurely on September 3.
About a month later, Alcantara underwent Tommy John surgery and as a result, missed the entire 2024 season.
The Marlins were so confident that Alcantara had made it all the way back from his surgery that they named him the opening day starter this season. But he clearly was not the same pitcher in the early stages of the season.
In 11 starts through the end of May, the once-dominant starter playing on a five-year, $56 million contract that would keep him in Miami through the 2026 season — and 2027 if the club picks up his $21 million option — posted a bloated 8.47 ERA, giving up eight home runs in 51 innings.
But as the season went on, Alcantara appeared to be moving back into his previous form, posting a second-half ERA of 3.33, down considerably from his 7.22 prior to the All-Star Break.
Red Sox Must Give Up a Star Outfielder
To get Alcantara, according to Miller, the Red Sox would likely have to give up one of their Major League outfielders. This season’s rookie sensation Roman Anthony is considered untouchable, and Masataka Yoshida, who functions primarily as a DH, “is both the most expensive (for now) of the five and the least versatile/valuable defender, by far,” Miller wrote. “That also makes him the least coveted trade chip.”
As a result, it appears likely to be 29-year-old, five-year veteran Jarren Duran “on the move if the Red Sox have their sights set on a big whale on the trade block,” according to Miller.
Trading Duran would leave the Red Sox with an outfield of Anthony in left field, 2024 Gold Glove winner — and 2025 finalist — Wilyer Abreu in right, and another 2025 Gold Glove finalist Ceddanne Rafaela in center.
Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin
More Heavy on Red Sox
Loading more stories
