And while Breslow has not said so, there is at least a 50 percent chance that Boston will trade outfielder Jarren Duran, according to ESPN longtime MLB insider Jeff Passan, and Duran’s name has appeared in numerous trade rumors, frequently for a pitcher.
Former MLB general manager and 1999 MLB Executive of the Year Jim Bowden on Friday proposed a trade that would address both of those concerns, dealing Duran as part of a package for a starting pitcher who once set a record for throwing the most pitches at 100 mph or faster in a single start, as recorded by Statcast.
Bowden’s proposal: “The Reds trade Hunter Greene to the Red Sox for outfielder Jarren Duran and pitchers Payton Tolle and Jedixson Paez.”
Greene, whose name has also been mentioned often in trade rumors, was the Cincinnati Reds’ first-round draft pick in 2017, out of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, California. But a series of injuries, including Tommy John surgery, which wiped out his 2019 season, delayed his major league debut until 2022.
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Since then, Greene has thrown 495 2/3 innings with a 3.65 ERA and 617 strikeouts. That’s a rate of 11.2 per nine innings — a pace which, if he had the qualifying 1,000 innings pitched, would place him third among all active pitchers.
Tolle currently ranks as Boston’s No. 2 prospect, per MLB Pipeline. The 6-foot-6, 250-pound left-hander got a call-up toward the end of this season, starting three games for the Red Sox with four bullpen appearances, compiling a 6.06 ERA, indicating that after just one professional season in which he advanced from Single-A to the majors, Tolle could still use development.
Bowden, however, wrote that Tolle “can step into the rotation immediately.” As for Paez, Boston’s No. 19 prospect, the 21-year-old right-hander from Venezuela “has exhibited the best control in Boston’s system and some of the best in the Minors since signing for $450,000” in 2021, according to an MLB Pipeline scouting report.
As for Duran, according to Bowden, he would serve as the “table-setter for the top of their lineup.”
Even in what was considered a down year for Duran, his .774 OPS was higher than that of any Reds outfielder and his 4.7 WAR was more than double centerfielder TJ Friedl’s 2.3 WAR, the tops from any Cincinnati outfielder.
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