Red Sox Could Trade Away $21 Million 2x All-Star In Nightmare Scenario

And so the conversation begins (albeit way too early)

May 18, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; A Boston Red Sox hat and glove rests on the railing by the dugout prior to a game against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images | Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

How much worse would things have to get for the Boston Red Sox to consider being trade deadline sellers?

Things have gone horribly wrong for the Red Sox over the last week. They've not only lost five in a row (mostly in excruciating fashion), but they've lost superstar Alex Bregman indefinitely. At 27-31, they're already 4 1/2 games out of playoff position.

However, if they arrived at the Jul. 31 deadline and the margin remained 4 1/2, there's almost no chance the Red Sox would sell. They'd have to drop seven, maybe even 10 games out of the playoff hunt to think about throwing in the towel.

Regardless, the chatter about the Red Sox potentially selling is beginning to fester. And one baseball writer believes that a two-time All-Star who just arrived in Boston could soon be on the move.

On Friday, Bleacher Report's Kerry Miller named Red Sox right-handed starter Walker Buehler, who is on a one-year, $21.05 million contract in Boston, as a potential trade candidate if things continue to change for the worse.

Miller singled out the Red Sox in a group of "eight other middling teams who could make things mighty interesting by making some of their impending free agents available to the highest bidders."

"Can't imagine any of them would be selling if the deadline were today, but plenty of time for that pendulum to swing," Miller wrote.

Buehler, 30, doesn't have the explosive stuff he had early in his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, when he made two All-Star appearances and finished as high as fourth in Cy Young Award voting (2021). But he's 4-2 with a 3.95 ERA in eight starts thus far wearing a Red Sox uniform.

After his dominant postseason performance last season that included World Series a win and a title-clinching save, teams would obviously be all over Buehler because of the October chops he's displayed throughout his career.

But the Red Sox still have a faint belief they can develop some postseason chops of their own. And that's why a scenario in which Boston would even consider selling off Buehler would mean this nightmarish season has only gotten worse by late July.

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