The Boston Red Sox entered the 2025 season with heightened expectations, but to this point, they have failed to meet them. While they have won their past two series against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, the Red Sox still have just a 34-36 record heading into another clash against the Yankees this upcoming weekend.
Boston has dealt with a slew of issues through their first 70 games of the season. They’ve been hit hard with injuries since the get-go, and while they have an assortment of talent at their disposal, manager Alex Cora has struggled to figure out the best possible configuration for this team, particularly when it comes to their lineup. It also hasn’t helped that the team’s franchise player, Rafael Devers, has been unwilling to play in the field after making the move from third base to designated hitter before the start of the season.
The Red Sox don’t have a shortage of talent, but their roster is extremely unbalanced, and it’s going to be up to the front office to sort things out over the coming weeks in order to help the team for the rest of this season and for the long-term future. With that in mind, let’s take a look at three moves the team could make moving forward in an effort to get back on track.
Trade Wilyer Abreu for pitching help
Easily the biggest position crunch on the Red Sox roster is the outfield. Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu all are starting-caliber players, and Rob Refsnyder is a great platoon player who can fill in against left-handed pitchers. That made it virtually impossible to promote Roman Anthony, the No. 1 prospect in baseball, until Abreu hit the injured list with an oblique strain.
Now that Anthony is in the majors, it seems unlikely he’s going back to the minors unless he struggles mightily. That means somebody from the aforementioned four-man crew is going to get squeezed out of the picture. Duran, Rafaela, and Abreu have all popped up in trade rumors, but it seems like dealing away the ailing Abreu makes the most sense for the time being.
After a blistering hot start to the season, Abreu has cooled off as of late, but he’s still hitting .245 with 13 home runs and 32 RBIs on the year, and he is a strong defender in right field who won a Gold Glove Award last season. Realistically, any of these guys could be dealt if it brings pitching back in return, but it feels like right field is Anthony’s best spot in the outfield, which makes Abreu the easiest player of this group to trade away.
Send Kristian Campbell back to Triple-A when Alex Bregman gets healthy
Another guy who enjoyed a hot start to the season, only to cool off dramatically, is Kristian Campbell. A member of the Red Sox “big three,” Campbell won the starting second base job in Spring Training, and enjoyed a hot start that immediately earned him an eight-year, $60 million contract extension. Initially, that looked like a steal, but Campbell has struggled mightily over the past month-and-a-half of the season.
Campbell is hitting just .230 with six home runs and 21 RBIs, with most of his production coming during the first weeks of the season. In his past 33 games, his batting average is sitting at an ugly .161, with just two homers and nine runs batted in over that stretch. Simply put, Campbell looks like a guy who could benefit from destroying pitchers in Triple-A for a couple of weeks.
Beyond that, Campbell has also been one of the worst defensive second baseman in the league, but the problem is that right now, Boston needs him in the majors. That will change once Alex Bregman gets healthy, which would allow Marcelo Mayer to shift from third base to second base. And once he comes back from the injured list, Campbell should be the guy who gets sent back down to the minors for the time being.
Trade for Edward Cabrera
Boston’s bullpen has received a lot of grief this season, but truthfully, the team’s starting rotation is their biggest issue. Garrett Crochet has pitched like a Cy Young candidate, but pretty much every other starter has been awful. Walker Buehler and Lucas Giolito both have ERAs over five, Tanner Houck’s is sitting at 8.04, and Kutter Crawford hasn’t even pitched this year. Brayan Bello’s 3.96 ERA is respectable at least, but he’s spent the majority of his outings dancing out of trouble.
If the Red Sox buy at the trade deadline, they need starting pitching. For the majority of the year, Sandy Alcantara of the Miami Marlins has been regarded as the top starting pitcher set to be available, but he has a 7.14 ERA through 13 starts, which is precisely what this team does not need. The guy Boston should target from Miami instead is Edward Cabrera.
In a way, the Sox already have their version of Cabrera on their team in Bello, but when Cabrera is on, he’s a strikeout machine who is nearly unhittable. The problem with him has always been his command, but his walks per nine innings is the lowest of his career (3.8). He probably won’t cost as much as Alcantara, and after giving up a big package to acquire Crochet, this feels like a much more appropriate move for the front office to make considering the circumstances.
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