Craig Breslow has earned a league-wide label that keeps his phone ringing: he’s willing to move prospects. Over the last two years alone, the Red Sox have shipped out Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, James Tibbs III, Zach Ehrhard, Brandon Clarke, Luis Perales, Yhoiker Fajardo, Marcelo Mayer, Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon, and Enddy Azocar. That’s a massive chunk of young talent gone from the system.
So it made sense that Franklin Arias would keep popping up in trade chatter. He was even reportedly in play at the deadline before Boston backed out of those discussions once the club decided Adley Rutschman was the target.
Still, the latest reporting suggests the Red Sox may have a firmer line on Arias than the rumors imply. According to the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, the organization views Arias as “untouchable,” with the top prospect only available if a true superstar comes back. The assumption there is that the kind of player who would even get Boston to listen is Elly De La Cruz.
Some in the Red Sox organization view Franklin Arias as “almost untouchable,” per @alexspeier.
He believes it’s unlikely that Arias is kept off-limits in trade talks, but he’d only be moved for a star with multiple years of control pic.twitter.com/pT6VGyCm7m
- Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) November 6, 2026
That stance lines up with the one move Boston has made with a similarly elite prospect in recent years: Roman Anthony. Breslow didn’t trade him.
Instead, Anthony got an eight-year extension soon after his MLB debut. The common thread between Anthony and Arias is obvious - both sit in the top tier of baseball’s prospect class.
The difference between Arias and some of the other names Breslow has dealt is just as clear. Teel and Eyanson were highly regarded, but they weren’t in that rarefied class reserved for players viewed as future MVP or Cy Young types.
Anthony was. Arias is, too.
MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs, and Baseball America all have him ranked No. 2 on their Top 100 lists, trailing only Brewers shortstop Jesús Made.
He’s backed that status up with the bat. Arias is coming off a season in which he hit .323/.400/.557 with a 145 wRC+ while reaching Triple-A as a 20-year-old.
“CJ Abrams or Zach Neto would cost Franklin Arias, who could find himself at shortstop for Boston in 2027, so those are likely out of the question.”
- @JeffPassan on the likelihood of a CJ Abrams or Zach Neto trade to the Red Sox. pic.twitter.com/pAXa8kPcbY
- Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) November 11, 2026
Boston’s logic here is pretty straightforward. Arias is the heir apparent to Trevor Story at shortstop, and the only real reason to move him would be to land an even better middle infielder.
That’s why his name keeps getting tied to De La Cruz. But even then, the Red Sox would have to weigh whether it makes more sense to keep the younger, cheaper player instead of thinning out the farm even more.
Because Breslow has shown he’ll make bold moves, an Arias trade can’t be completely ruled out this winter. But given where Arias sits among the sport’s elite prospects, it sounds like Boston is far more likely to keep him than to send him packing.
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By the end of his career, Martin had built a rsum that included a 3.53 ERA over 434 appearances and a World Series ring with the Braves in 2021. For the Red Sox, the bigger takeaway may be how well he fit when they needed dependable innings, and his path through the organization gives his Boston chapters a little more weight now that the career is apparently coming to a close. [Read more 🡒]