Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently fed the media some disinformation about Boston's outfield logjam.
Breslow said during the Las Vegas GM Meetings that the Red Sox have already shown they can accomodate four starting outfielders.
“There is absolutely a way to accommodate all of those talented outfielders, and I think we showed that last year,” he said (per MassLive's Christopher Smith).
Breslow's claim in Vegas was wildly misleading, as he didn't acknowledge injuries to Wilyer Abreu and Roman Anthony in 2025. Furthermore, a new report from MLB insider Bob Nightengale suggests that Breslow is currently shopping two of his four starting outfielders, making the claim look all the sillier.
Bob Nightengale says Red Sox are shopping Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu this offseason
Bob Nightengale is saying the Red Sox are shopping Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu. Yes I know, Zac Gallen, but this continues to be in the rumor mill.
— Robbie Hyde (@gingersnaphyde) December 7, 2025
Lots of pitching as well as Duran/Wilyer gives the Red Sox plenty to work with on a big trade package. KCR? ARI? CIN? LAD? pic.twitter.com/mvkjgKRK0C
While some fans were quick to denounce the reporting from Nightengale on account of his recent, iffy post about Zac Gallen and the Chicago Cubs, Nightengale's decades-long resume speaks for itself, as does the overwhelming amount of worthy reports he's contributed recently, which far outweigh the occasional whiff (no one's perfect).
Nightengale's report is believable because it makes perfect sense for the Red Sox, who simply must do something about their overcrowded outfield, even if Breslow was intent on saying the opposite publicly to maintain some sort of leverage.
Along with re-signing Alex Bregman and possibly adding a second big bat (Pete Alonso? Kyle Schwarber? Ketel Marte?), Boston's offseason to-do list must include fixing the outfield problem. No one on Earth has ever considered Roman Anthony as anything other than untouchable, but there's been some buzz around Gold Glover Ceddanne Rafaela possibly being the guy Boston ends up moving.
Nightengale's revelations suggest that the Red Sox plan on keeping Rafaela. Interestingly, comments from Alex Cora a couple of weeks ago suggested the same exact thing.
If Duran and Abreu are indeed up for sale, it would be interesting to know which player is receiving more interest from suitors. A surplus of reports from the 2025 trade deadline revealed that the San Diego Padres have long been a Duran admirer, but there are surely others.
Abreu is an even more intriguing trade chip, though. He's younger than Duran, a better fielder (with two Gold Gloves in two seasons to show for it), and his bat, though inconsistent, has shown magic during stretches that points to it being superior to Duran's, as well.
Losing Abreu instead of Duran would feel like a gut-punch for a lot of Red Sox fans, but you have to think Breslow is going to weigh his decision-making based on whether an impossible-to-refuse offer lands on his desk for either player, rather than on a preference for one of the two outfielders.