3 Ideal Starting Pitchers Red Sox Should Target In Jarren Duran Trades

If the Boston Red Sox trade an outfielder this winter, our make-believe betting odds are heavily skewed in favor of it being Jarren Duran.

Duran is both the oldest Red Sox outfielder (only 29, but still) and the closest to free agency. He didn't match his incredible standard from 2024 this year, but he put up 4.6 wins above replacement, the third-most of any player on the team.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are trying to compete for a World Series next year. If they trade Duran, it should be for a player who makes their roster more championship viable. And the most obvious need they have right now is a No. 2 starter.

Boston may well have to package other assets to land a pitcher of that caliber, but without getting too far into the weeds, let's examine a few arms chief baseball officer Craig Breslow could set his sights on landing.

Joe Ryan - Minnesota Twins

Ryan was the Red Sox's white whale at the trade deadline, and it only makes sense that they'd take another stab at landing him this winter. He's a prime example of a guy who wouldn't be worth Duran alone, but the Sox have plenty of young pitching talent to throw into a potential trade.

With 4.5 WAR, 194 strikeouts, and an All-Star appearance under his belt this year, Ryan would likely be the best pitcher to change teams this offseason if he got traded with two years remaining on his contract. If there's one holdup, it's that Ryan is 29, so a five or six-year extension might not be all that appealing to Boston's age-conscious pitching brain trust.

Nick Lodolo - Cincinnati Reds

The left-handed Lodolo has two more years under contract as well, and after some injury-plagued seasons early in his career, he proved he could stay on the mound with 156 2/3 innings pitched this year. And in those innings, he put up a 3.33 ERA and 4.9 WAR.

Because Lodolo's track record is a little shorter than Ryan's, the value proposition of trading him for Duran straight-up is a little closer to even. It would be fascinating to see whether one top baseball exec would force the other to include more players in the deal.

Kris Bubic - Kansas City Royals

If Bubic had finished out the season on the same pace he was on through 20 starts, Red Sox fans might be foaming at the mouth already in hopes of landing him from the pitching-flush Royals. But he suffered a strained rotator cuff that limited him to 116 1/3 innings -- still his most since 2022.

Bubic is only under contract for one more season, so the Royals may be amenable to moving him for three years of Duran, especially because their outfield finished dead-last in WAR among the 30 clubs this year. But the Red Sox would be under a lot of pressure to extend Bubic (another pitcher in his late twenties) if that came to pass.

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