BOSTON -- It’s no secret that the Boston Red Sox have too many outfielders to fit in the lineup, putting pressure on interim manager Chad Tracy and, before him, Alex Cora to not only put together a lineup but also manage the personalities of the players who inevitably see their playing time decrease as a result. 

When at full health, Boston has five options to slot into the three outfield positions and the designated hitter spot: Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran, and Masataka Yoshida. Anthony, Rafaela and Abreu are certainly franchise cornerstones upon which the next World Series-winning Red Sox team will be built, leaving Duran and Yoshida as the obvious men out. However, neither provides the type of offensive spark typically found in the designated hitter of the Boston Red Sox. While the Red Sox have reportedly shopped Yoshida in each of Breslow’s first three offseasons to no avail, thanks in part to his limited upside and bloated contract. The team has been reluctant to move on from Duran, whom Cora once praised as the type of player he wants his children to emulate, and has reportedly placed an exorbitant price tag on the 30-year-old. 

That stance reportedly changed ahead of the 2026 trade deadline, with reports surfacing that the team may look to simply offload Duran as he continues to mire himself in controversy both on and off the field, all while being one of the most disappointing hitters in the sport. 

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand took an early look at potential trade candidates as the regular season winds to a close, listing Duran as the “poster child” of change-of-scenery candidates. 

“Duran has been a theoretical trade candidate for a couple of years, but his value has plummeted since his monster 2024 campaign. Duran is two stolen bases away from a 20-20 season, but his .624 OPS is down 150 points from 2025 and 210 points from 2024. Boston will have to settle for a lesser return if it trades Duran, but with Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu on the roster, Duran doesn’t have a clear-cut role if that trio is healthy,” writes Feinsand. 

Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow’s handling of the outfield logjam, and Duran in particular, is one of the biggest blemishes on his resume. As Feinsand notes, Duran is now two seasons removed from his 2024 campaign, in which he posted an fWAR of 6.9 and finished eighth in American League MVP voting. While he took a slight step back in 2025, he was still a coveted trade asset if Breslow was willing to budge on his reported asking price, valuing him as the player he was in 2024. Boston reportedly turned down an offer from the San Diego Padres ahead of the 2025 trade deadline that would have sent starter Dylan Cease, who Boston went on to pursue in free agency after the season, and catching prospect Ethan Salas, who became a consensus top-10 prospect in the sport in 2026, to Boston in exchange for Duran. 

Despite being just two stolen bases shy of his second career 20-20 season, Duran finds himself hitting just .207/.263/.367/.630 in 137 games while ranking in the bottom five among 139 qualified hitters in the sport in batting average (136th), on-base percentage (138th), OPS (135th) and weighted runs created plus (69, 137th). In addition to his poor play on the field, Duran has made headlines on a number of occasions for all the wrong reasons, including making an explicit gesture to a fan in Minnesota, threatening to fight a podcaster who posted a video clip of the incident, and, most recently, appearing to shout out to Willson Contreras that he should have been tagging up on a shallow fly ball during the Red Sox’ series in Sacramento against the Athletics. 

Now 30 years old, with only two years of team control remaining, coming off of the worst season of his professional career, it’s hard to imagine many teams would be racing to outbid each other for the controversial outfielder’s services. 

Whether or not Breslow finally alleviates the longstanding logjam ahead of the 2027 season remains to be seen, but if Duran is in fact the piece that’s moved, it will undoubtedly come at his lowest value. 

After a much-needed off day on Thursday, the Red Sox will open a three-game set against the Kansas City Royals on Friday night. Sonny Gray (17-4, 2.69 ERA) will get the start for Boston opposite veteran right-hander Seth Lugo (6-8, 5.04 ERA) for Kansas City. First pitch from Fenway Park is set for 7:10 p.m. ET.