As baseball’s winter meetings get underway Sunday, the Boston Red Sox enter with two items topping their shopping list: a power bat, preferably from the right side, and another addition to their starting rotation. While chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has previously said that he hopes to acquire a No. 2 starter after ace Garrett Crochet, he has been less clear about that since making trades to get starters Sonny Gray from the St. Louis Cardinals, and Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
And while Breslow has not said so, there is at least a 50 percent chance that Boston will trade outfielder Jarren Duran, according to ESPN longtime MLB insider Jeff Passan, and Duran’s name has appeared in numerous trade rumors, frequently for a pitcher.
Former MLB general manager and 1999 MLB Executive of the Year Jim Bowden on Friday proposed a trade that would address both of those concerns, dealing Duran as part of a package for a starting pitcher who once set a record for throwing the most pitches at 100 mph or faster in a single start, as recorded by Statcast.
Bowden’s proposal: