Had you labeled the Boston Red Sox as "potential trade deadline sellers" prior to Opening Day, you would have rightfully been laughed out of the room. Expectations were sky high for a club that won 89 games a year ago and spent the offseason relentlessly upgrading its pitching staff.
Alas, the Sox now sit in last place in the AL East, saddled with a -13 run differential that is far below the standard the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays have set atop the division. Even though the team is playing better under interim manager Chad Tracy (8-8 since he replaced Alex Cora), it's not as if they've morphed into contenders overnight.
The hope, naturally, is that the team will continue to right the ship as the season grows longer and their players get healthier. The Red Sox are still without their two best players (Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet) as of this writing, which would be an insurmountable obstacle for almost any team.
Still, at 18-25, it's only fair to start looking ahead with an eye on the future. The Red Sox have a lot of veterans on short-term contracts; offloading them this summer could ensure that their long-term championship hopes remain alive and well.
If that seller mentality does eventually become the path the front office takes, Bleacher Report has offered up one trade candidate in particular for Boston to shop: Sonny Gray.
Sonny Gray will be Red Sox's best trade chip if they choose to sell at trade deadline
It's not hard to understand why Gray is the player to highlight in these discussions. A 36-year-old pitcher with ample postseason experience, he's the exact kind of rental starter contending teams covet at the trade deadline. If his 3.18 ERA and 4.20 FIP are worth anything, he's clearly still a mid-rotation-caliber starter, and with the St. Louis Cardinals already paying down half of his salary, he won't be prohibitively expensive to take on during the season.
There is the not-insignificant factor of Gray's full-no trade clause to take into account — he'll have final say about where he gets moved, if he does at all. The only other time in his career that he's been traded during a campaign (2017) landed him in his least-favorite situation as a player with the Yankees. It's possible he won't want to uproot himself and his family during the summer, instead opting to wait until the offseason to choose a new home in free agency.
However, now that he's in his late-30s, contending seasons are at a premium. If the Red Sox don't bounce back before July, it would behoove Gray to accept a trade elsewhere in search of that elusive championship.
Hopefully, this won't be a discussion we need to continue in the coming months. Gray is a rock-solid No. 3 or 4 starter on a contender, which is the situation he finds himself in with the Red Sox if they can meet that qualification as a team. If selling becomes a necessity, though, it makes all the sense in the world for both parties to part ways before the 2026 season is over.
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