BOSTON — The Red Sox have started exploring the trade market to bolster a lineup that has scored the fewest runs in the American League. According to a league source, Boston’s front office has been making calls and canvasing the league to see what might be available.
A second league source noted that, given the team’s widespread offensive struggles, the team isn’t seeking to bolster offense at one specific position. The club is looking to add any offense in general, with a preference for a right-handed bat. The Red Sox have been without Roman Anthony for the past three weeks and might be without Trevor Story until the All-Star break.
What caliber of bat and what the Red Sox would be willing to trade in return remain the biggest questions.
While an immediate trade is unlikely, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has shown early aggressiveness before. He traded Rafael Devers, one of the team’s most productive hitters, to the San Francisco Giants in a stunning deal on June 15, 2025. (Devers is hitting .241 with a .681 OPS and six homers this season.)
“There’s been conversations going on earlier than ever before on that front,” CEO Sam Kennedy said on WEEI on Friday morning. “It’s obviously hard in the American League, it’s so bunched up. There are some National League teams that I’d say are more engaged in conversations than typical at this time of the year.
“If the question is, are Craig and his team in baseball operations trying to improve the team right now, the answer is yes. Will we be able to get a deal done or match up on something? I have no idea, is the truth. But there’s conversations, there’s urgency, and that’s something that’s important, and hopefully something that can be done earlier rather than later, but there’s two ways to improve with the existing group and new faces, so we’ll try on both of those.”
Entering the season, questions swirled about a Red Sox offense that lost Alex Bregman and added only Willson Contreras. Contreras, who recorded his 1,000th career hit Friday, has been a strong addition, hitting .269 with an .869 OPS and 10 homers.
But the Red Sox own the fifth-worst OPS in baseball at .679 with the fewest homers (36) among American League teams. Yet, with parity ruling the American League, they still sit just two games back of a wild-card spot. Only five AL teams have a record above .500.
Offense wasn’t the problem Friday night in an 8-6 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Reliever Justin Slaten’s seventh-inning implosion, in which he allowed two two-run homers, was the culprit, wasting one of the team’s best offensive showings at home this season. The Red Sox hadn’t scored more than four runs in a home game since April 20.
On Friday, they jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, their largest first-inning lead this season. Jarren Duran led off with a walk before Wilyer Abreu hit an RBI double and Contreras added an RBI triple.
“I think the at-bats have gotten a lot better,” Contreras said through an interpreter. “We’re working a lot of different counts. There’s going to be at-bats where you get out on the first pitch, but that happens. But overall, I think we all think that the at-bats have gotten a lot better.”
Boston’s offense has found somewhat of a rhythm over the past week, with four runs or more scored in three straight games, the first two of which capped a sweep in Kansas City. They tacked on two runs Friday on Caleb Durbin’s sacrifice bunt, which led to a throwing error, and another on a Duran groundout.
Scoring at Fenway, in particular, has been tough for the Red Sox. The six runs Friday equaled the total from their four previous home games combined. But the Twins chipped away, scoring three off Payton Tolle in the second inning before Slaten’s rough seventh. Slaten hadn’t given up an earned run in nine previous appearances this season.
“I thought we were great offensively all night,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “The at-bats, even in the innings we didn’t score, we took balls, we got some walks, we got people on base. I thought it was pretty good throughout the game.”
Adding another bat could lengthen the lineup in what figures to be a gritty battle in the AL this summer.
