After the 2024 season, the Boston Red Sox could have traded Jarren Duran for nearly any player in the game. With a .285/.342/.492 slash line, 21 homers, 34 steals and stellar defensive play, the then-27-year-old put showed off one of the best all-around skill sets in the game en route to a nine WAR season.
If Boston had pulled the trigger at the 2025 trade deadline, it could have landed a real impact player. Finally, during last offseason, Duran had lost a little of his luster, but he still would have generated a haul.
Now, Bleacher Report is predicting that the 30-year-old outfielder finally moves on via a trade, landing with the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for reliever Orion Kerkering.
If this were to come to fruition, here are the positives about Kerkering: He's a 25-year-old righty reliever with a high-90s fastball. Like Duran, he had a great 2024, a good 2025 that was a bit of a step back, and an atrocious 2026 that saw him post a 4.97 ERA and get demoted down the stretch.
The best the Red Sox can hope for in a Jarren Duran trade is a change-of-scenery candidate
Duran went from intriguing and dynamic to dull and problematic over the last few years. The kind of drama that Duran has created throughout his tenure in Boston is never ideal, but if you're going to make something other than your play the center of attention, as he's done at times, you can't hit .207/.266/.361.
The Red Sox have known for a while that push was going to come to shove, and they'd need to trade an outfielder, but they procrastinated. To an extent, it was understandable. When you have so many promising young players at a position, like Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Roman Anthony, along with Duran roaming the grass, you want to make sure that you trade the right one.
However, it was pretty clear that Duran was never going to reach his 2024 heights again, and as the oldest of the bunch, he was an easy pick to move on from. Had they done so at any point from the start of the 2025 season through spring training of this year, they'd have been able to get either a nice haul of prospects to revitalize the system, or a quality big leaguer at a position of greater need.
The funny thing is, there's a case to be made for the outfield being a need this offseason despite all of these guys in the picture. Randy Arozarena has been linked to Boston as a potential free-agent fit, and he'd make a lot of sense, as long as the club can clear out Duran.
As for the Bleacher Report proposal, a player like Kerkering might be the best that the Red Sox can do in a Duran deal. Not only is he young, but relievers are volatile, so there's more reason to believe in a bounce-back than a player with similar struggles at a different position. The worst-case scenario would be failing to find any kind of trade match and being forced to non-tender Duran. That would be the epitome of squandering an asset.
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