5 dream Red Sox trade deadline additions to fantasize about bringing to Boston
By Tim Boyle
Can one trade save the Boston Red Sox? Probably not. This team has been one of the more curious successes or failures this year depending on how you want to look at it. Parts of the roster have been atrocious. Others have excelled and helped them stay right there in the thick of the American League chase for the postseason. If not for playing in baseball’s most jacked division, the Red Sox would probably feel a whole lot better than they do right now.
A lot must go right for the Red Sox to become trade deadline buyers this summer. Can they pull it off? If by the middle of July the team is playing well and in contention, any of these five dream candidates could help save the season. They don’t have to settle for just one either.
To answer your final question, Shohei Ohtani isn’t on the list because even the wildest dreams of Red Sox fans cannot conjure up a realistic scenario where he is traded to Boston this summer. Sorry. That dream will have to wait until free agency.
1) Dream Red Sox trade deadline addition: Cody Bellinger
There is only one bat on this list. The Red Sox don’t need a whole lot more punch to their lineup. If there is one glaring hole on the roster right now it’s at first base.
But Cody Bellinger doesn’t play first base. Well, he has in the past. He can provide the Red Sox with plenty of starts there and in the outfield as well.
This is a list of dream trade candidates so picking up Josh Bell from the Cleveland Guardians or Bellinger’s Chicago Cubs teammate Trey Mancini doesn’t exactly fit. There are expected to be a surprisingly low number of quality first basemen available at this year’s trade deadline. The Red Sox would need to get creative if a boost at this position is something they need.
Bellinger is currently on the IL and will need to return to the Cubs and continue to produce in order to become someone worth trading for. With a mutual option for next year as well, maybe a reunion with Enrique Hernandez, Justin Turner, and Kenley Jansen will help convince him to stick around—as long as he’s playing well.