MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Typically, the vast majority of the action centered around the trade deadline takes place in the final hours before the actual deadline.<\/p>\n
This year, that seems more true than usual, with little activity in the days leading up to Thursday\u2019s 6 p.m. ET deadline.<\/p>\n
An official with another team described the Red Sox<\/a> to be in \u201cstealth\u201d mode with 48 hours to go.<\/p>\n \u201cHaven\u2019t heard much of anything with them,\u201d volunteered an executive with another club.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean the Red Sox aren\u2019t still working toward finding some pitching help or other roster reinforcements. But they appear to be doing so in low-key way.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what we know:<\/p>\n *The Miami Marlins have two of the better controllable starters available in Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera. As recently as 10 days ago, when the Red Sox called to inquire about Alcantara\u2019s availability, the message they seemed to be saying, according to someone with knowledge of the talks, was: \u201cDon\u2019t move him without checking back with us.\u201d<\/p>\n But since then, there\u2019s been little contact between the Marlins and Red Sox. That could stem from the high asking price for either pitcher, which according to a source, \u201cstarts with two elite prospects… plus.\u201d<\/p>\n *It\u2019s well-known that the Red Sox covet Tampa Bay first baseman Yandy Diaz<\/a>, who would give the Sox a run-producer and a right-handed bat, all in one.<\/p>\n What\u2019s less certain is whether the Rays are inclined to move any significant players off their roster.<\/p>\n \u201cI keep hearing they might be \u2018soft-selling,\u2019 whatever that means,\u201d said one executive with a team that has been in touch with the Rays. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re buying or selling, and I don\u2019t know if they know either.\u201d<\/p>\n Further evidence of the Rays\u2019 indecisiveness: they traded one catcher (Danny Jansen), then, in a separate transaction, acquired another one (Nick Fortes). They\u2019ve also inquired about pitchers while engaging in talks for some of their own pitchers. Tampa Bay was reportedly in on Chris Paddack before Minnesota send him to the Tigers.<\/p>\n *The chances of the Red Sox landing a controllable starter seem negligible. With so little pitching inventory available to begin with, the handful of starters with more than a year of control remaining is short, and accordingly, the ask is through the roof.<\/p>\n That would include Alcantara, Cabrera, MacKenzie Gore and Joe Ryan. The Red Sox have reportedly reached out on Pittsburgh\u2019s Mitch Keller<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI think,\u201d observed an executive with one NL team, \u201csome of these GMs just decided to set the asking price unbelievably high and are waiting to see if there\u2019s someone desperate enough to meet it.\u201d<\/p>\n *Finding a catcher may not be a huge priority for the Red Sox, who are largely focused on pitching \u2014 both starters and relievers.<\/p>\n But the Red Sox would like to obtain a second catcher whom they could play more frequently than they\u2019re playing Connor Wong, if for no other reason to provide a breather for starter Carlos Narv\u00e1ez.<\/a><\/p>\n Narvaez looks exhausted of late, both behind the plate and at it, where he\u2019s slumped in the last few weeks. Over his last 15 games before Tuesday, Narvaez was slashing .170\/.214\/.358 with 15 strikeouts in his last 53 at-bats.<\/p>\n Minnesota\u2019s Christian V\u00e1zquez would be welcomed back. He wouldn\u2019t cost much.<\/p>\n *At times, teams with established closers trade for other closers to have them serve in a set-up capacity.<\/p>\n The Red Sox did it with Billy Wagner (2009) and Eric Gagne (2007). Wagner worked out well; Gagne didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n There are a number of established closers currently on the market, including St. Louis\u2019 Ryan Helsley, Minnesota\u2019s Jhoan Duran and Pittsburgh\u2019s David Bednar. That list also included Cleveland\u2019s Emmanuel Clase, too, until he was suspended by MLB Monday for his suspected connection to a gambling investigation.<\/p>\n To date, however, the Red Sox don\u2019t seem to have been engaged on any of these relievers even as they seek a bullpen upgrade.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Typically, the vast majority of the action centered around the trade deadline takes place in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":123221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[591,1266,592,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-123220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-national-league","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114981069426703588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n