The clock is ticking for Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. With his club riding high following a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Breslow is running out of time to upgrade the roster for the stretch run.
The Red Sox are returning to Fenway Park after a 6-1 road trip. Boston has won five straight and 23 of their last 26 games overall. So the time is right for Breslow to plug some holes by wheeling and dealing before Monday's 6 p.m. ET trade deadline.
"The Red Sox will continue to try to land a shortstop," ESPN's Buster Olney reported Sunday.
"CJ Abrams is available, theoretically, and sure, if the Red Sox or some other team goes all-in, the Nationals would be open to the conversation. Any trade for Abrams would have to be a blockbuster," Olney added.
"The biggest name to drop outside of (Tarik) Skubal could be one of the shortstops who are marginally available, and the Red Sox are the biggest threat to land one of them," ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Sunday.
"Zach Neto, Otto Lopez ... even CJ Abrams -- the Red Sox have the pieces for any of them, and teams are hoping to be the beneficiary of Boston's aggressiveness. Because all are excellent and controllable for multiple years, though, the asks are exorbitant," Passan added.
"With two days until the deadline, the Sox continued to face a significant asking price from the Angels in their ongoing talks about shortstop Zach Neto," The Boston Globe's Tim Healey reported Saturday.
"The Angels seek shortstop Franklin Arias, a source said, to headline a package that would include other prospects," Healey noted.
It's hard to imagine the Red Sox parting with Arias, who is the club's top-rated prospect and No. 7 overall, according to MLB Pipeline.
But Neto has All-Star potential. Yes, the 25-year-old leads the American League with 155 strikeouts this season. But he's about to crack the 20-home-run plateau for the third straight season (sitting at 19 as of Monday) and posted WAR of 5.1 and 5.3 in 2024 and 2025.
Neto also has three years of arbitration eligibility remaining and would make it easy for the Red Sox to move on from Trevor Story, who's currently on the injured list while recovering from sports hernia surgery.