Deadline Notes: The Latest On The Red Sox Ahead Of Monday’s 6 p.m. Cutoff
The 2026 deadline arrives Monday at 6 p.m. ET, and for the first time in a while, Boston gets to walk into it as a buyer instead of a team hoping to salvage draft capital. A team that was 29-43 through 72 games is now living the kind of stretch front offices dream about — and it’s changed the entire complexion of what Craig Breslow does over the next 24 hours…
The early move already didn’t go as planned. Breslow got a jump on the market last weekend, sending lefty Connelly Early to Washington for third baseman Curtis Mead — infield help that was supposed to provide a more stable boost to the Sox infield. Instead, Mead took a pitch off the wrist in his second at-bat with the Red Sox and will need time to recover. Bad break, literally. Boston has indicated it’s still shopping for infield depth, deadline or not…
Shortstop remains the itch that won’t get scratched internally. Trevor Story hasn’t played since mid-May following sports hernia surgery, and while Andruw Monasterio has been a pleasant surprise holding down the position, this is a team that sounds like it wants an upgrade for October. The names circulating: Zach Neto (Angels), Otto Lopez (Marlins), Jeremy Peña (Astros), and CJ Abrams (Nationals). Lopez is the one rival executives keep bringing up in the same breath as Boston — he’s hitting .331, has 22 steals, and profiles as exactly the contact-oriented player Breslow has gravitated toward in past dealings…
However, beat writer Sean McAdam recently shot down any hopes of Lopez joining the Sox:
Abrams would be a huge get — 27 homers, a .561 slugging mark that leads all shortstops — but Washington would likely play hardball and Boston would more than likely have to hand over #1 prospect Franklin Arias, including other assets.
Peña brings a championship pedigree from Houston. All are variations on the same question: how much of the graduating prospect base is Breslow willing to spend on a rental infielder for a team that, three months ago, looked cooked…
Catcher is the other soft spot. Connor Wong and Carlos Narváez catch a good game, but the offense from the position has lagged, and Miami’s Liam Hicks (14 homers, .279/.358/.435, splitting time at catcher/first/DH) keeps coming up as a fit — including in packaged scenarios with Lopez. Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers would be the more established target, but the Twins are still fighting for a Wild Card spot themselves and may not want to subtract from a roster that’s alive…
Straight from Breslow’s own mouth, and it’s worth noting the tone rather than just the substance: asked Sunday whether the front office intends to keep pushing, he told reporters that “the players deserve it,” adding that “the fans deserve it” too — then pointed to how far this team has come from where it started the year. That’s about as close to a mission statement as this front office gets…
7News Boston’s Ari Alexander has been the one connecting Boston to the top shelf of the shortstop market specifically — Peña, Neto, and, more surprisingly, Athletics catcher/corner guy Shea Langeliers — though Alexander’s own follow-up was that none of the three looked especially likely to actually move. Note that Langeliers just got hurt and won’t be a part of any trades.
There’s also been a second wave of speculation around picking up some more hitting prowess for the lineup: multiple insiders, Francis Romero among them, have floated interest in Giants second baseman Luis Arraez, currently locked in a batting-title fight with Otto Lopez. Boston has reportedly done more due diligence than aggressive pursuit here — the same phrase Speier used a year ago about Josh Naylor, for what that’s worth as a pattern…
On the pitching side, Masslive’s Sean McAdam pointed to Mets lefty Brooks Raley as a sensible, lower-cost addition to a bullpen that’s already sporting a major-league-best ERA — sub-3.00 in each of his last five seasons, and a rental since he’s a pending free agent. Not a needle-mover, but exactly the kind of depth buy contenders make almost as habit at this point on the calendar…
Elsewhere, it’s worth noting what didn’t happen to Boston: Tarik Skubal went to the Dodgers in the deadline’s headline blockbuster, a reminder of how quickly a rotation arm at that level disappears off the board once a heavyweight decides to go get one. Boston was never realistically in on Skubal, but it moves the goalposts on what’s left at the top of the pitching market — names like George Kirby (Mariners, reportedly available) and Kevin Gausman (Blue Jays, limited market given his no-trade list and salary) are among what remains…
There’s also been chatter that Boston would listen on Jarren Duran, which says less about wanting to move him and more about how thoroughly the front office is canvassing the market with a 21-4 July behind it. Teams that get hot always get a call about everybody; that doesn’t mean anybody’s actually walking out the door…
One more data point worth logging: Franklin Arias, the org’s top prospect, wasn’t in the WooSox lineup Saturday — a scheduled rest day per a Speier source, not a trade signal, though Speier has separately reported the Sox discussed Arias in deals for Joe Ryan and Ketel Marte last summer, and his price has only gone up since. If Boston wants Neto specifically, per Speier’s reporting, Arias is described as the “necessary price.” That’s the kind of sentence that tends to make a fan base nervous around 5:45 p.m. Monday…
The bigger picture, and the one worth sitting with heading into Monday: this roster spent three months looking finished, and an organization that stayed patient now gets to spend the deadline adding rather than explaining a fire sale. Whatever Breslow does in the next 24 hours, that alone is a different summer than the one Red Sox fans thought they were getting in May.
Check back for live trade deadline updates as Monday’s 6 p.m. cutoff approaches.
