On Saturday afternoon the Red Sox agreed to trade starting pitcher Jake Peavy to the San Francisco Giants for two minor league pitchers, and it has been rumored that Boston's GM Ben Cherington will continue to listen to trade offers until the deadline.
The Red Sox have fallen to 10.5 games back for the AL East division lead and remain 7.5 out of the Wild Card race, which has prompted management to consider trades for some current players that could get them young talent in return. Jake Peavy was able to reel in right-hander Heath Hembree and left Edwin Escobar from the Giants. If they decide to trade Jon Lester, he could get them much more.
Earlier in the week Lester and his agents rejected a four-year deal in the $70 million to $80 million range offered by Boston, and ever since, trade talks have been swirling around the starting pitcher. The Red Sox have lost 12 of their last 20 and perhaps have fallen back too far to recover and make the playoffs. Trading Lester to either the Dodgers or Cardinals (who have been atop the rumor talks) could provide a nice exchange for the Red Sox, who are looking for outfield help.
The Cardinals just called up young outfielder Oscar Taveras and the Dodgers still have Joc Pederson in Triple-A (batting .323 with 21 home runs and 53 RBIs). Pederson perhaps should have been in the majors quite some time ago, but the many outfielders on the LA roster have prevented that from happening (as they're financially committed to Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier, and Matt Kemp while Yasiel Puig continues to dominate). The Red Sox could strike a deal to land one of these guys and provide them with a potential long-term solution in the outfield.
In addition to Lester's possible departure, Red Sox first baseman Mike Carp notified the organization after the All-Star break that he wanted to be traded. He has played a minimal role on the team this year (79 at-bats in 39 games) and believes he can contribute on a contending squad, but it's unknown at this point what Carp would yield in return. The deadline is just over four days away and trade talks will continue to heat up in the meantime.
"What we're doing is, we're listening,'' said Cherington, in this Boston Herald article. "We're gathering information as we have been over really the last month or so, and as we get closer to the deadline, it starts to become more clear as to what teams are the most motivated to add in different areas, whether it's starting pitching or bullpen or position players or whatever. And so we'll start to get more clarity on exactly what opportunities might be out there for us. But we're not there yet. We're not closing in on anything yet, but we're listening and we'll just see how the rest of the week goes."
In the meantime, you can take a look at ESPN's MLB Rumors page to see what else is going on.
