The Red Sox may be staring at the same problem again: who handles shortstop every day.
Trevor Story’s injury history and struggles at the plate forced Boston to patch together the position all season long, with five different players cycling through the middle infield. Isiah Kiner-Falefa was part of that mix, but he’s now an unrestricted free agent.
And with the shortstop market looking thin, led by Mauricio Dubon and J.P. Crawford, the Red Sox may need to swing bigger if they want a real upgrade.
That’s where a trade idea from Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer enters the picture. He pointed to Bobby Witt Jr. as a possible target, noting that Boston had shown interest before the deadline.
"According to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, Bobby Witt Jr.'s name came up while the Red Sox were weighing trades for various stars before the trade deadline. It's unclear if they actually spoke to the Kansas City Royals about their three-time All-Star shortstop, but either way, the idea to trade for him was there in some form," Rymer wrote.
Witt would be a massive get. He has put up 6.7 bWAR or better in each of the last three seasons, and his game checks every box: power, speed and elite defense at shortstop.
Rymer also argued the Royals should at least entertain the possibility, even though Witt signed an 11-year contract in 2024.
"He signed an 11-year contract in 2024, but opt-outs starting after 2030 could effectively make it a seven-year deal," he wrote. "He's now three years into it, and the Royals are looking ahead at what could be the last four from the wreckage of a 93-loss season. Their contention model needs a course correction, badly."
In the proposed deal, Boston would send left-hander Payton Tolle, right fielder Wilyer Abreu, shortstop Franklin Arias and outfielder Justin Gonzales to Kansas City.
That’s a steep price, and the Red Sox would almost certainly think hard before including Tolle, whose ace upside has made him a fast-rising fan favorite. Arias would be another painful loss, especially with the prospect ranked No. 2 in baseball.
"It's a haul, alright, but it would return nothing less than the best shortstop in baseball. And arguably, the best player at any position that the sport has to offer," Rymer concluded.
It’s the kind of blockbuster that would stop the sport in its tracks, and one people would argue about for a long time afterward.
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