After the Boston Red Sox's shocking trade of Rafael Devers, their roster is critically short on offensive power. Devers was the team leader with 15 home runs, and with Wilyer Abreu slumping and Alex Bregman on the injured list, Boston's bats need a jolt to stay alive in the Wild Card chase ahead of the trade deadline.
MLB insider Mark Feinsand proposes that the Red Sox use their newly flexible roster (and finances) to trade for a first baseman who could bring some pop to the lineup. One of the few he suggested is the Baltimore Orioles' Ryan O'Hearn.
O'Hearn, 31, is on pace to post a career year and he's been the best hitter on an underperforming Orioles squad. The lefty has logged a .305/.387/.480 slash line with an .867 OPS, 10 homers and 29 RBI over 65 games. He's also a great defender and ranks in the 89th percentile with three outs above average at first base.
There's still a month until the upcoming trade deadline and, despite their last-place standing, the Orioles aren't yet clear sellers. Baltimore's underperformance was unexpected in MLB, given that it made the postseason last year and its young players are so highly touted. The Orioles still have time to turn their struggles around, though, and become a playoff contender as the trade deadline approaches. If that happens, there's almost no way they would help the Red Sox maintain their lead over them in the division by trading O'Hearn to Boston.
Red Sox linked to Orioles first baseman Ryan O'Hearn, MLB insider names other teams involved in Rafael Devers trade talks
In other Red Sox rumors, MLB insider Bob Nightengale reported some of the other clubs to which the Red Sox organization spoke before it traded Devers to the Giants. He mentioned the Mariners, Cubs, Blue Jays, Braves, Padres and Giants as teams in the mix for Devers.
Trading Devers altered the Red Sox franchise forever and never should've happened under competent leadership, but the Sox may have dodged a bullet here. Seeing Devers play for the Blue Jays 13 times a year would be a brutal way for his tenure in Boston to end. The Red Sox shipped Devers quite literally as far away as possible, and spared their fanbase from seeing him wail on their pitching over four series per season.
Nightengale also reports that Giants owner Greg Johnson said there never would've been a trade if San Francisco didn't agree to eat Devers' entire contract, something Red Sox CEO and president Sam Kenendy and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow denied multiple times in their post-trade Zoom press conference. If eating Devers' entire contract was indeed part of the Red Sox's trade discussions, the Blue Jays could have been one of the final teams in the mix, as their ownership group is one of the wealthiest in MLB. Toronto has long struggled to sign top-tier free agents, and the Devers trade could've been the perfect opportunity for it to net high-dollar talent without big market competition. Fortunately, the deal didn't pan out that way, and Red Sox fans will only be forced to reminisce on what could've been for one series per year.