Where will Red Sox look for a trade?
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| Dave Dombrowski has set the stage for a summer trade. (Photo courtesy AP) |
Contributing writer
Sitting just three games out of first in the AL East and in the Wild Card lead as June approaches, the Boston Red Sox and GM Dave Dombrowski will no doubt be making moves this summer. Dombrowski has long been a go-getter at the Trade Deadline.
Based on his recent media engagement, it sounds like Dombrowski and the Sox brass are in the gathering information stage on trade prospects. Don't expect Boston to make any sudden moves quite yet.
But when it does, where will Dombrowski turn? He might have offered a subtle hint Tuesday afternoon.
“The handful of clubs where you can make trades, you could have figured those out a month ago… because they're building for the future." -Dombrowski, to the media Tuesday
As it turns out, there are a handful of clubs which right now are prime targets. The entirety of the AL West and NL East, with the exception of Houston and Washington, are under .500. San Francisco and San Diego are 11.5+ back in the NL West. Everyone else is within 6.5 games of their division leaders.
Sure it's possible a trade comes from elsewhere. It's highly unlikely anything happens within the division. Chicago, Detroit and Kansas City are close to their division leaders, but each at least three games under .500. Same goes for Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
There are still two months until the deadline. Boston still hasn't figured out its third base situation and the bullpen is missing something. Tyler Thornburg and Carson Smith could both return from injury and bolster the pen. Those additions, or even just one of them, would be a huge pickup without trading something away.
Keep an eye on the aforementioned teams and you might find the next Red Sox player.
