A Red Sox grab bag: Trade rumors, prospects and Fanpulse

Red Sox “monitoring” José Abreu market

Here’s a bizarre rumor that popped up late Thursday night that I didn’t even see until Saturday morning. The Red Sox are apparently monitoring the availability of José Abreu. I say it’s bizarre because, well, that’s what it is! I like Abreu a lot as a player and by all accounts he’s a phenomenal presence in the clubhouse. That is all very good news, and the latter of which could be a big reason the White Sox decide to keep him around. That said, the Red Sox don’t have a ton of resources from which to deal and those bullets are better saved for a real hole. Boston’s offense has been, for the most part, just fine. Michael Chavis has been up and down, but he and Mitch Moreland should be a good first base combination down the stretch while Chavis and Holt can hold down second base. The Red Sox were, of course, heavily connected to Abreu back when he came to the States from Cuba, but that was six years ago now. He’d be fun to root for, but it doesn’t make much sense within the context of this roster.

Scouts watching Giants-Blue Jays

We are firmly in the middle of scout-watch season, folks! What a time to be alive! That the Red Sox sent someone as high-ranking as Wren to this game is probably telling, but this is a good time to remind people to mostly ignore run-of-the-mill “scouts are watching ___ game” reports. Scouts go to games of pretty much any player that is expected to be dealt in the summer. Sometimes reporters find out, sometimes they don’t. As for this specific report, I don’t see the Red Sox going after another starting pitcher unless one of their current starters goes down between now and the deadline. They could feasibly move Porcello into a relief role, but I’d be shocked if that actually happened. Instead, my guess is that the Red Sox were there to look at relievers like Shane Greene, Ken Giles, Tony Watson, Will Smith, Sam Dyson, Mark Melancon and maybe some of the Mets guys as well. That’s just the most logical approach for this team right now.

Three prospects in the top-100

Baseball America keeps something of a dynamic top 100 prospects list that is constantly being updated. As such, it is mostly a snapshot of the current landscape. Right now, though, they have some good things to say about the Red Sox. Jarren Duran did fall out of the list this time around, but Boston does have three prospects in there in Triston Casas, Bryan Mata and Bobby Dalbec. It’s behind a paywall so I don’t want to give too much away, but I’ll say that is the order in which they are ranked and that are all in the bottom 30.

Fans want to buy

Our latest Fanpulse poll, instead of focusing on the general direction of the team, asked fans about their preferred plan for this coming trade deadline. It is a question all teams have to ask themselves every summer. Should we buy, sell or stand pat? It’s an extremely interesting question for a disappointing Red Sox team in a muddled and, frankly, kinda ugly AL Wildcard race. Fans in our poll ultimately decided on buying.

I think this is almost certainly the right move. The Red Sox are in a win-now position with a chance at the Wildcard. It’s not ideal, but they are talented enough that if they get hot at the right time they can very realistically make a run through October. They just haven’t looked like that team at all this year. It might just be that I’m coming off Friday’s horrible game, but I am leaning more and more towards stand pat. I don’t think you can sell off pieces — particularly those under control more than one year — but I think you can justify not trading assets for what could very well be a lost year. This team, as currently constituted, could feasibly make a run if everyone plays up to par. And if they don’t, it doesn’t really matter who they add. It could make the most sense to just see what these guys can do, even if it feels hard to believe that could end well.