The Boston Red Sox need just one more infielder to go into the 2026 season with a better team than last year. At this stage in the offseason, making that final move is easier said than done. <\/p>\n
Alex Bregman has signed with the Chicago Cubs, Bo Bichette signed with the New York Mets on a contract the Red Sox never would’ve matched, the Arizona Diamondbacks have taken Ketel Marte off the trade block and the Houston Astros don’t seem too desperate to move Isaac Paredes to Boston. However, another infield option may have recently entered the Sox’s radar.<\/p>\n
In his January 27 piece for The Athletic, <\/a>MLB insider Jim Bowden named the Red Sox as one of many potential suitors for Washington Nationals shortstop, CJ Abrams (subscription required). Bowden specified that the Nats aren’t actively shopping Abrams but that they’re listening for any intriguing offers other teams may present. <\/p>\n The San Francisco Giants reportedly made a play to trade for Abrams earlier this offseason and Bowden named the New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners as other possible suitors in a trade. <\/p>\n Red Sox named as potential trade fit for Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams<\/p>\n Abrams is currently a shortstop who will likely move to second base later in his career (or whenever a team that trades for him moves him there) given his 11 outs below average as a shortstop in 2025. Such a move would make sense for Boston, which could shift Marcelo Mayer over to third base while Trevor Story remains at shortstop. If the Sox are prioritizing defense as much as Craig Breslow says<\/a> they are, Abrams is far from an ideal addition, but they’re running out of time to search for perfection. <\/p>\n Abrams hits left-handed, which isn’t the best match for the Red Sox’s offensive needs \u2014 Boston could use another righty bat to balance out its lefty-heavy lineup. He slashed .257\/.315\/.433 with a .748 OPS, 35 doubles, five triples and 19 homers last season. There’s quite a bit of swing-and-miss in his game and he doesn’t take many walks, which could be another reason Boston could be out on the 25-year-old shortstop. <\/p>\n Any Abrams rumors should be taken with a grain of salt. Former Red Sox assistant GM-turned Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni said in a recent appearance on 106.7 The Fan<\/a> that no team has come close to trading for Abrams. Maybe the Toboni connection could give Boston a leg-up in any trade talks, since he’s so well acquainted with the roster and farm system. <\/p>\n Abrams could be an intriguing trade candidate for the Red Sox, especially since they have the major league and upper-level farm talent it’d take to bring him in. He’s not an ideal fit for the roster given the team’s defensive needs and hopes for a righty bat, but when teams refuse to pay the best fit for their roster,<\/a> they have to settle for less-than-perfect moves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boston Red Sox need just one more infielder to go into the 2026 season with a better…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543],"class_list":{"0":"post-542316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-red-sox","14":"tag-redsox"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115973161221906777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}