Red Sox Insiders Make Statement On Jarren Duran Trade Rumors

Over the last few days, a popular topic across Major League Baseball has been Boston Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran.

Earlier in the week, The Athletic’s Dennis Lin reported that the San Diego Padres are interested in the 28-year-old All-Star. This isn’t shocking. It was reported a few weeks ago that the Padres were looking for outfield help. Duran is a great player and much has been said about the Red Sox’s surplus of outfielders. 

Since Lin’s report circulated, there’s been a lot of speculation in chatter about Duran. MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo addressed the rumors on the "Fenway Rundown" podcast and certainly made it sound like a deal doesn’t sound likely.

"It was reported by The Athletic that Jarren Duran is a target for the outfield-needy Padres," McAdam said. "I would say AJ Preller would like to have Jarren Duran in the same sense that people in Hell would like ice water. It's one thing to want it and it's another thing to be able to go and get it done. It's hard to see how these two teams matchup...Yeah, it would open the way for Roman Anthony to come here. To a lot of people, that may be all they need to be convinced that the Red Sox should do this. But, you're not going to give Jarren Duran away.

"You would probably identify the Red Sox's two biggest needs right now as starting pitching and someone to play first base. Well, they're not going to trade you Luis Arráez who is their first baseman. And they're two best starting pitchers, (Dylan Cease) and (Michael King) are heading to free agency and you're not about to give up a 28-year-old player who was a top 5 MVP pick last year and has 3 1/2 years of control to rent a starting pitcher."

Cotillo followed.

"They're in a place right now where they can't trade good assets for guys in Single-A or Double-A or prospects or projects," Cotillo said. "There's already a logjam in a lot of ways in the major leagues at many spots. They're at the point now where its going to be about the major league team. You need to get a controllable major leaguer if you're going to make any of these deals."

The 2025 Major League Baseball trade deadline isn’t until July 31st. This is going to be a topic to follow until then, but I would take the two Red Sox insiders’ word for it over anything else. If they don’t think a deal is likely at this moment, fans shouldn’t either.