The 2026 Boston Red Sox didn't feature enough offense and not nearly enough slug. The Red Sox ranked 26th in MLB in homers with 163, and they were 23rd in runs scored with 689.
Bringing in a 35-plus home run per season type slugger would inject the middle of Boston's lineup with just what it needs. And while the free-agent market won't provide that type of slugger, the trade market could. The only issue for Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow is that his usual strategy for acquiring an impact bat — by dangling young pitching — has become less usable. That's simply because Breslow's traded so much young pitching of late, including in the Curtis Mead and Adley Rutschman deals. Breslow's supply of high-end pitching prospects is much thinner these days.
If the Red Sox want a big-time slugger, they still have a couple of trade assets that could entice teams, but it leads to a difficult conversation.
Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela are the Red Sox's two most enticing trade chips right now
Wilyer Abreu having 5 more defensive runs saved than any other player in baseball is incredible.
— BallPark Buzz (@BallParkBuzz) September 21, 2026
Such an underrated player. pic.twitter.com/DEFvQxMKVk
Abreu and Rafaela offer present value (they are both productive right now), Gold Glove defense, and years of control. Abreu is under team control through 2029; Rafaela, through 2032 due to his extension. The reasons that the Red Sox would want to keep Abreu and Rafaela are the same reasons that would make another team willing to part with their slugger for a package headlined by either one.
Neither Abreu nor Rafaela are on massive AAV deals, making them bargains from a production standpoint if they keep performing as they have been. There's power to be had in both guys' bats (Abreu especially), so the Red Sox wouldn't even think about trading either one unless the slugger coming back in the deal was virtually a guaranteed 35-40 homer player.
And those players are not many in number, by the way. Only 11 players hit 35-plus homers in 2026. One of them was Junior Caminero, whom the Tampa Bay Rays would never in a million years trade to Boston. Another was Rafael Devers, whom the Red Sox wouldn't dare bring back, not with the Breslow regime still in place.
The scarcity of true sluggers makes an Abreu or Rafaela trade a long shot, but the above rationale spells out why such a deal cannot be called impossible, nor can Abreu or Rafaela be called untouchable.
Breslow's shown that he can construct an awesome pitching staff, with a surplus of quality arms left over to use in deals for other needs. Now, his challenge will be to improve Boston's offense in 2027 before his store of high-end arms has been adequately refilled (that'll take a year or two, at least).
At some point, Breslow will probably be faced with a difficult decision to trade one of Boston's major position players at the MLB level to bring in a superior position player. And we're not talking about Jarren Duran here.
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