The Boston Red Sox wrapped up their worst series of the season on Wednesday as they dropped their second game of three against the Colorado Rockies.
With the loss, Boston is back to being 14 games below .500 at 32-46. At this point, it's hard to argue that this club is going to be able to turn the season around. Sure, there's still roughly half the season left to go, but Boston just lost a series against the worst team in baseball and has not shown any signs that it's actually approaching some sort of turnaround.
All in all, this is a new low for Boston.
The trade deadline is coming up on Aug. 3. Boston is going to feel its impact in large part because of all these losses stacking up. The speculation and buzz around the team are all pointing in this direction right now. For example, Bleacher Report's Zachary Rymer predicted that Boston will cut ties with Jarren Duran by sending him to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"Boston Red Sox (32-45): They'll trade Jarren Duran to the Diamondbacks," Rymer wrote. "Blowing it up already feels like Boston's best course of action, and Duran might be the most valuable chip in their ample collection. Even if he only has a 78 OPS+ this year, the power and speed are there and his history includes a 9-rWAR season.
"Sean McAdam of MassLive reported in January that the Diamondbacks have 'long coveted' Duran, and they happen to be deep in one area where the Red Sox are very, very shallow: right-handed hitting."
Duran is cheap and is making just about $7.7 million this season and has two more seasons of control left.
Duran has been connected to Arizona in the past and the Diamondbacks are in a much better place than Boston is. The idea makes sense. At this point, cutting ties with pretty much any veteran makes sense for the Red Sox.