Boston Red Sox Could Be Interested in Trading Alex Verdugo

Reports indicate that the Boston Red Sox are open to trading outfielder Alex Verdugo.

All along, the prevailing thought has been that the Boston Red Sox might be willing to trade Adam Duvall at the looming trade deadline.

He's a free agent at the end of the year and is of surplus value to the Sox. They already have Jarren Duran, Masataka Yoshida, Rob Refsnyder and Alex Verdugo that can play out there, so it's all made sense.

But now, reports indicate that the team may be willing to listen to offers on Verdugo also, something that was not initially thought of.

#RedSox could deal from their outfield:https://t.co/SHWfnVgzu1 pic.twitter.com/9vIxyr1NVt

— MLB Trade Rumors (@mlbtraderumors) July 31, 2023

From the above MLBTradeRumors article:

Whether the Red Sox are in listening mode or might be more actively shopping Verdugo, it seems that there is a possibility the right fielder might be in another uniform by Wednesday. Such an outcome might have seemed unlikely as recently as June 27, when Verdugo was hitting .307/.379/.477 over his first 322 plate appearances and seemed on the way to the best season of his seven-year MLB career. However, the last month of play has been rough for Verdugo, as he followed up that dream start by hitting .143/.212/.234 over his next 85 PA.

Complicating things further is that Verdugo will be heading into the last year of his deal in 2024. If the Red Sox are going to re-sign him, they'll be looking at having to pay him upwards of $100 million or more.

Do they value him that much or do they think there's better value in going after trade pieces that can help the franchise long-term?

We'll see come Tuesday's trade deadline.

The Red Sox are 2.5 games back in the wild card race and open up a new series with the Seattle Mariners on Monday at 9:40 p.m. ET.

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