MLB Insider Claims Red Sox Could Be Nearing Firesale If Club Doesn't Turn Things Around

Boston ultimately may end up being sellers at the trade deadline

The Boston Red Sox may look extremely different shortly if they don't start racking up some wins.

Boston currently is in last place in the American League East at 34-35 and with the 2023 MLB Trade Deadline quickly approaching, questions already are swirling about what the club will do next. Last season, the Red Sox opted for a hybrid approach that confused many around baseball. Boston dealt catcher Christian Vazquez but kept slugger J.D. Martinez and added Eric Hosmer and outfielder Tommy Pham and didn't shed salary. Boston fell short of the postseason and eventually let all three players go. 

If the Red Sox are unable to gain ground in the postseason standings ahead of the trade deadline, things may look a little different this season. Boston could opt to unload some of its talent and maybe even enter into a firesale, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal on the latest edition of the Fenway Rundown podcast with MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam. 

“Full fire sale mode is what? Trading (James Paxton), (Kiké Hernández), (Adam Duvall)... You could trade (Kenley Jansen),” Rosenthal said to Cotillo and McAdam. “He’s got another year and Jansen will have value. Probably value to his former team (the Los Angeles Dodgers), by the way. They could do that. At this point, the fans are upset enough where if you did that, are you going to upset them that much more? Team is not very good. I think people would want to see, actually, some action taken along those lines.

“The average Red Sox fan would not want to sit there and watch two more months of what they’ve been watching. So that’s possible. If they reach that point, that’s damning, too, because hey, it hasn’t worked.”

Boston has dealt with a plethora of injuries so far this season but at times has shown flashes of a club that could compete for a postseason spot. The Red Sox currently are without the services of infielder Trevor Story and star lefty Chris Sale and recently got Duvall back in the lineup. Story should return at some point this summer but Sale's ultimate return is murkier. 

Hopefully, the Red Sox can get healthy avoid a firesale and instead focus on adding at the trade deadline, but at this point, it's looking like the club will offload some talent and put its focus on 2024 if they can't gain some ground in the standings quickly.

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