With losses piling up for the Boston Red Sox, who could end up being on the move?
Over the last few weeks, Aroldis Chapman, Sonny Gray and Jarren Duran have been speculated about as potential trade chips for the organization. Boston is floundering and now is 14 games below .500. For the Red Sox to turn their season around, they would need a miracle at this point.
The trade deadline will arrive on Aug. 3 and unless Boston goes on a long winning streak, all of the noise around the organization will be about who could be on the move. Outside of Chapman, Gray and Duran, two other names to watch are Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten. While this is the case, former Red Sox utility man and current broadcaster Lou Merloni made a point that he wouldn't just move the two relievers for a small price.
"That’s not a hard no that I’d have on Willson Contreras,” Merloni told Joey Copponi and Scott Neville on the ITM Podcast. “I don’t want to move any of these guys. I’d love to bring Aroldis Chapman back for another year. I’d love to continue to have Whitlock out there, and Slaten. But the bullpen is very volatile. There’s no question about it. We saw the Twins sort of trade away their whole bullpen and then rebuild the bullpen. So it can happen. I’d have to be blown away. I’d have to get something that really made sense. I’m certainly not dealing Whitlock for a couple of A-Ball players that are far away from the big leagues, that I don’t know will really impact my team. So I’d take calls but I wouldn’t be jumping to do that."
These aren't the topics of conversation Boston fans certainly wanted to have right now.