The Boston Red Sox are real buyers. No, like legitimately.
Going from one of the worst teams in the AL to the hottest in baseball and into a Wild Card slot changed hearts and minds—in the front office and across Red Sox Nation. The conversation has flipped from theorizing about selling to being a team that would be remiss not to add before August 3rd at 6pm. Craig Breslow has a little over a week and prospect capital to spend. The question isn’t whether to buy. It’s what each move actually costs.
Here’s where Boston can add, and what it’ll take.
The Catcher
Combined catcher line in 2026: .233/.318/.320, four home runs in 359 plate appearances. Four. Connor Wong is a plus defender who earns his roster spot. Carlos Narváez is better offensively and has a cannon of an arm. Neither is consistently the bat you want crouching behind the plate when October arrives. There are two GINORMOUS catching opportunities on the market right now, and the Sox are tied to both.
Shea Langeliers, Oakland Athletics/Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies
Red Sox get: Shea Langeliers/Hunter Goodman
Athletics/Rockies get: Brayan Bello, Connor Wong, Kyson Witherspoon
The A’s have publicly said they won’t move Langeliers—Passan puts the odds at 10%. But Heyman has them “open to anything,” and there’s a version of this where Bello gets a change of scenery out of a crowded rotation (even if this year has been rough for him), Wong fills an immediate hole behind the plate, and Witherspoon at #3 in the system touching 100 mph is real currency. Langeliers is the best catcher in baseball right now—.263, 23 home runs, 51 RBI, All-Star, two arb years remaining. You make the call and find out.
Same package, different organization. Goodman has 31 home runs in 95 games with a .890 OPS. Back-to-back All-Star at 26 years old. The Rockies’ previous asking price conversations have been astronomical—we’re talking the type of haul that strips your system clean. This package is the starting point, not the ending one. Bello is a legitimate arm who could help them, the Rockies have said they’re willing to listen, and you put it on the table and see what happens.
Ryan Jeffers, Minnesota Twins
Red Sox get: Ryan Jeffers Twins get: Nick Sogard, Allan Castro
The achievable option. Jeffers is hitting .287 with a .950 OPS on an expiring deal—free agent after the season, which keeps the return price manageable. Sogard is slashing .304/.429/.435 since his call-up and is a real MLB contributor, not filler. Castro is a #14 prospect at Triple-A witTh switch-hitting upside. For a rental catcher putting up those numbers, this is a credible offer. The Yankees are also calling, so this one doesn’t sit on the table for long.
The Middle Infield
This is one they’ve already done! Maybe, depending on how the positions shake out and Franklin Arias’ timeline.
It started as “we could use an upgrade.” Then Trevor Story had sports hernia surgery and went on the 60-day IL, even with him progressing with baseball activities recently. Then Marcelo Mayer landed on the 10-day IL with a forearm bone stress reaction and is still a ways away from coming back—weeks most likely. Now you’re running a prospect-and-utility-heavy rotation with Romy Gonzalez, Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler, and Tsung-Che Cheng as your starting middle infield in a pennant race. Those guys have been good. That is not a postseason middle infield and everyone knows it.
So is Curtis Mead the answer? We’ll find out.
The Reliever
Luke Weaver, New York Mets
Red Sox get: Luke Weaver
Mets get: Enddy Azocar, Anthony Eyanson
The Mets have pieces available and Weaver keeps coming up. The problem: you’d have to overpay to get him out of New York, and this team needs starting pitching more than a hit-or-miss setup man. Eyanson in a Weaver deal is too much—a top-3 system arm for a reliever who has good stretches and rough ones. If a cheaper Mets piece falls into place at a lower cost, fine. But if it’s Weaver or a real rotation arm, the rotation wins every time.
Why not Mason Miller? That arms race isn’t worth touching. The price is more eye-watering than you can imagine.
The Starting Pitcher
Jake Bennett has been outstanding. Payton Tolle has stepped up. Patrick Sandoval is healthy and serviceable. None of that means you run them into the ground in a pennant race without cover. This rotation needs a veteran arm who takes real pressure off the young guys.
Foster Griffin, Washington Nationals
Red Sox get: Foster Griffin
Nationals get: Allan Castro, Harold Rivas
Griffin is 11-2 with a 2.68 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, and 117.1 innings on a $5.5 million expiring deal. Rival executives around the league are calling this trade “inevitable.” The Nationals are a developing team who understand the rental market—they know Griffin isn’t bringing back a top-5 prospect because he doesn’t have years of control. Castro is a #14 prospect at Triple-A, a switch-hitting outfielder with legitimate upside. Rivas is the lottery ticket at 17. The package is light for an arm having this kind of year, but expiring deals have a return ceiling and if Washington wants to move fast, this gets the conversation very real, very quickly. The one wrinkle worth noting: Griffin is a lefty, which puts him in a rotation that already has Rivera, Sandoval, Tolle and potentially Crochet as southpaws. It gets repetitive unless one of those names moves in a bigger deal.
José Soriano, Los Angeles Angels
If the Sox are already deep in an Angels conversation about Neto, Soriano is worth asking about in the same breath. Heyman reported the Angels are making him available alongside Detmers. He’s 97 mph, under team control through 2028, and an actual rotation upgrade with years of staying power—not a rental. And a righty, which solves the rotation handedness problem entirely. The price reflects that control. But if LA is clearing house and the Sox are already on the phone, it costs nothing to ask.
Brady Singer, Cincinnati Reds
Lower cost, expiring deal, legitimate innings-eater. Not an ace—a #3/#4 arm who takes the ball every fifth day and doesn’t give the game away. The Reds are selling. The price shouldn’t crack the top of the system. This is the right-sized option if the bigger names don’t materialize, and there’s no shame in that.
Michael Wacha, Kansas City Royals
Red Sox get: Michael Wacha
Royals get: Yoelin Cespedes, Nick Sogard
We’ve talked about Wacha before in this space. He’s 5-7 with a 3.66 ERA in Kansas City and is having the best sustained run of his last few years. He’s always available. He’s always fine. And “always fine” has real value as rotation depth when things go sideways in September. Cespedes is a former top-10 prospect in the system working through contact issues at High-A. Sogard is a current MLB contributor. This isn’t a blockbuster—it’s the sensible fallback if the bigger targets don’t come through.
The Bottom Line
Breslow doesn’t have to do all of these. But the priorities are clear: shore up the catcher situation, get a shortstop, find a starting pitcher who can take real load off the young arms. The windows that close fastest are the ones where the front office watches the right moment arrive and spends three years explaining why they held back.
Eleven days. Go spend some of that capital.
