Boston Red Sox Reportedly Willing to Deal From Young OF Core

As the Boston Red Sox look to make additional moves this offseason, they are reportedly willing to trade from their young outfield core.

On Friday night, the Boston Red Sox signed former All-Star pitcher Lucas Giolito to a two-year deal.

We called the move a good start to the offseason for Boston, who finished last in the American League East last season, but said that there was more to do.

The Red Sox are apparently getting to work on that "more to do" as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe says that the team is exploring trades from its young outfield core.

Per Speier:

And according to major league sources, the Sox have continued to explore trades involving their group of young outfielders — they currently have lefthanded hitters Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran, and Wilyer Abreu, as well as righthanded hitters Tyler O’Neill, Rob Refsnyder, and Ceddanne Rafaela. If the Sox deal from that group to add a pitcher, they could then return to the free-agent market to add a bat such as slugger Teoscar Hernández, in whom the team remains interested even after signing Giolito.

This plan seems to make logical sense for Boston: They appear unwilling to go to the top of the market to sign pitchers like Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery. If that truly is the case, then dealing from the outfield excess to get a pitcher - and then backfilling the OF with Hernandez, could be an effective cost-saving move that also helps baseball-wise.

Rafaela, Abreu and Duran would likely represent the pieces that other teams would be the most interested in. Rafaela and Abreu come with a full six years of team control while Duran is older (27) and has just five years of team control.

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