According to Jeff Passan from ESPN, the Boston Red Sox are in the "driver's seat." They have so many candidates they could part ways with for a better short-term future, such as Danny Coulombe, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Greg Weissert, Masataka Yoshida, or even Franklin Arias. But many teams are interested in Jarren Duran, and for all good reason.
"And while teams will continue to ask about outfielder Jarren Duran, the difference between how Boston and potential suitors value him remains steep," Passan wrote.
Jarren Duran's rising stock makes his easy trade candidate for Red Sox
Duran has been one of the better overall hitters in baseball since 2023. While the Red Sox have only made the playoffs once (lost to the New York Yankees in the 2025 Wild Card Series) in that time frame, Duran has been one of the bright spots. From 2023 - 2025, he's posted a slash line of .276/.339/.471/.810 while hitting 45 home runs, 123 doubles, 29 triples, and 82 stolen bases in 419 games (1793 plate appearances).
This season, he didn't start well, but most of the Red Sox offense was guilty of that, too. Duran went from hitting .174 on May 15th to hitting .219 as of June 3rd. During this time, he's hitting a slash line of .306/.381/.653/1.034, while hitting six home runs on 22 hits, while driving in 15 runs. He's also hit three doubles and two triples during this time as well. Overall, he's recorded 10 home runs, nine doubles, two triples, and driven in 33 runs.
While the Red Sox definitely value Duran at his highest peak (which was his 9.0 WAR 2024 season), and other teams don't view him nowadays as such, the CBO Craig Breslow should still try to get more uncomfortable than he would like.
Trading Jarren Duran could save Craig Breslow's job
Over the last few months, the Red Sox have reached headlines in the worst ways.
First, they cleaned house and fired their World Series-winning manager Alex Cora, along with hitting coach Peter Fatse, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, MLB hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin, third base coach Kyle Hudson, and bench coach Ramon Vazquez. Jason Varitek was rumored to be reassigned, but his beloved wife, Catherine, later revealed he would not return on X. They replaced Cora with AAA Worcester manager Chad Tracy on an interim tag. Whether or not he stays in the future is a different story.
Now, just recently, it was revealed by David Ortiz that John Henry is "worried" about the state the Red Sox are in right now. Also, former three-time World Series-winning GM Theo Epstein (now part-owner/senior advisor of FSG), who had previously endorsed Craig Breslow for the position, is "disappointed" in the results.
So let's be honest: Craig Breslow is on the hot seat, and that's another story entirely. However, when someone has everything to lose, they will do whatever they can to gain a footing. Expect Henry to get involved and help Breslow make some moves at the deadline this year, because his deadline acquisitions haven't been exactly "profound".
In this case, Duran should, and quite possibly could, be traded come August 3rd.
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