The Boston Red Sox are headed into an offseason that could reshape the middle of their lineup and infield, and Jeremy Pena has emerged as a name to watch.
Boston’s 2026 season made one thing clear: this team can beat anybody, but it can also get beat by anybody. That kind of inconsistency usually points to a winter of change, and the Red Sox may be in that spot now. How much they can actually do will depend in part on the front office and the uncertainty surrounding Major League Baseball’s potential lockout, while the Franklin Arias situation also still needs to be sorted out.
Even with Arias in the picture, the Red Sox could use another infielder who brings more offense. Pena fits that conversation, though adding him would create some real traffic in the infield with Arias, Curtis Mead and Trevor Story.
Much depends on whether Arias gets called up, and Boston would also have to work through the roles of the other two players. That said, a path still exists for playing time, since one of Mead or Story could slot in as the designated hitter.
Bleacher Report sees Pena as a strong fit, and the case is simple enough: if Story gets back to form, Mead becomes what the club hopes he can be, and Arias arrives and makes an impact, then another high-end bat could still matter. As Kerry Miller wrote in Bleacher Report’s “Boston Red Sox: A Trade for a Middle Infielder,” the “Prime Target” is Houston’s Jeremy Pena, who is arbitration-eligible in 2027 with an estimated $13.1 million salary.
“Though they have a potential star waiting in the wings in the form of top prospect Franklin Arias, the Red Sox got a whole lot of nothing from their 2B and SS spots in 2026. And because they rather expect Arias to be a key piece of the puzzle by no later than 2028, trading for a multi-year solution a la CJ Abrams, Zach Neto or Corey Seager probably isn't the route they want to go, if they can instead get one year of Pena at a not-too-exorbitant cost."
Reports say Pena is available this offseason, but until Houston actually makes that move, the uncertainty hangs around.
The appeal is obvious. Pena just posted the most home runs of his career with 22, and he did it in only 112 games.
That production jumps off the page, especially for a player who hasn’t reached the level of a top-10 name in the sport but can still be argued to be elite. For a Red Sox club trying to win it all, that kind of bat would make plenty of sense.
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Arias is the name that makes the decision more interesting because his development matters as much as the major league alignment. He is turning 21 soon, and the Red Sox have reason to be careful with how they introduce him, since the best path for his growth appears to be one that lets him play every day in the field rather than bouncing around in a limited role. [Read more 🡒]