Red Sox trade rumors: Sox "very interested" in Phillies' Michael Young

According to George King of the New York post, the Red Sox would be "very interested" in acquiring Michael Young from the Philadelphia Phillies if they were to make him available.

Just when you thought it was safe to start trusting the front office again...

Michael Young has gained the reputation for being "one of those guys" in recent years. The guys who are fawned over by those obsessed with "playing the game the right way" and less interested with "scoring runs and not allowing them." Think David Eckstein, Nick Punto, and Dustin Pedroia when he's 42 years old and missing a leg from that alligator wrestling incident in 2021*.

Trade Rumors: Cliff Lee, Jonathan Papelbon

Of course, there might be more to this story than just Michael Young...

The problem with Young is that he's not very good at baseball, but still thinks he is. As a bench bat, Young still wouldn't really be worth the roster spot since the Red Sox have the magical Mike Carp filling the same role. Young would argue that he's a more versatily infielder, not a 1B/LF type like Carp, but frankly if you put Carp at second or third, he wouldn't look much worse than Young. Carp would be a wreck there, but at some point we're talking about the difference between two zeroes.

The key that makes Carp so much better than Young--beyond the 260 magical points of OPS, of course--is that Carp is actually willing to go where his team tells him. We've seen Michael Young profess his flexibility and then balk at the suggestion that maybe he try to take his terrible glove out of the equation. If Mike Carp is asked to play first, he'll play first. If he's asked to DH, he'll DH. If he's asked to sit four-out-of-five games despite hitting a mile better than Mike Napoli, well, so far he's shown that he'll sit.

Michael Young has not shown that he's willing to do what his team needs him to do, and that includes being a bench option. He's started every year of his career, and has 302 PA in 74 games with the Phillies to date. Even if we decided he would actually be a bench upgrade, given his past actions there's little reason to expect he'll quietly accept such a role. There's just no place on this team for Michael Young.

Read more Red Sox:

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• John Lackey finally living up to his contract
• MLB All-Star Game 2013: Two Red Sox prospects named to Futures Game
• Farrell: Red Sox "better team" with Jose Iglesias at third base
• The Kevin Youkilis trade, one year later

*Who am I kidding? One-legged, 42-year-old Pedroia would still be awesome.