If you followed along with the Boston Red Sox throughout the offseason, you’ve likely heard the name “Isaac Paredes” a lot at this point.

The Houston Astros All-Star slugger was among the players most consistently linked to Boston in trade rumors as the club tried to find a way to replace Alex Bregman at the hot corner. There was a time when Paredes looked like a very good option for the club. He could’ve come in and played second base with Marcelo Mayer at third base. Or, he could’ve played third base with Mayer at second base.

At the time, Paredes was linked to Boston along with other players like Brendan Donovan, Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw, among others. All of a sudden, though, the Red Sox struck and acquired Caleb Durbin from the Milwaukee Brewers. That should’ve ended the conversation around Paredes, but it didn’t.

Right now, the Red Sox and Astros are facing off in their first series of the season against one another. So, naturally, the offseason rumors around Paredes have been put under a microscope. Tim Healey of The Boston Globe reported on Monday that while the rumors were loud throughout the offseason, a deal was “never-particularly-close.”

The Red Sox were heavily linked to Isaac Paredes

“Paredes was a much-discussed, never-particularly-close trade possibility between the teams, a league source said, as the Red Sox tried to find new sources of offense and figure out their shifting infield (and as the Astros considered subtracting from an overcrowded infield),” Healey wrote.

That’s not all, though. Healey also confirmed that the Red Sox and Astros had trade talks centered around Jarren Duran and that the conversation really didn’t end when Durbin came to town.

“At least some of the Sox’s talks with the Astros revolved around Jarren Duran, the outfielder they most made available of their starting-caliber quartet,” Healey wrote. “It wasn’t so much a one-for-one concept as it was Paredes-plus for Duran or Duran-plus, a source said. … Even after the Red Sox acquired third baseman Caleb Durbin from the Brewers on Feb. 9, they continued to talk to the Astros about Paredes, thinking they could put him at DH (and keep the more defensively capable Durbin at third), among other possible alignments.”

That’s a lot of information to unpack there. When it comes to Duran, the Red Sox arguably made the right call not trading him away. He’s had a somewhat slow start to the regular season, but this is a guy who hit .407 in Spring Training with three homers and also was red-hot in the World Baseball Classic. His bat is going to pick up at some point soon and help this club. It’s also not like Paredes is tearing it up right now. He’s 3-for-16 on the season so far for Houston. There were rumors about this idea of Duran and Paredes, but this is confirmation that it was at least an option discussed.

Also, the fact that the two sides discussed a deal after the Durbin deal is surprising. That’s another topic that had a lot of traction after the Durbin deal, but arguably didn’t make any sense. Unless, of course, the Red Sox actually traded Duran. If the Red Sox traded Duran, then the outfield would’ve been Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu with Masataka Yoshida as the No. 4 outfielder.

In that case, you could’ve had Paredes DH with Yoshida getting time there and then Mayer and Durbin in the infield. What these new reports show is that the noise around Duran — and Paredes — was in fact real, but the club made the right call not making a move.