Red Sox's Latest Confirmed Trade Target Could Help Flip AL East Race

The gauntlet has been thrown down to every team in the American League East.

A team in the division reportedly signed five-time All-Star Pete Alonso on Wednesday, and it wasn't one of the three that made the playoffs last year. The fifth-place Baltimore Orioles made Alonso the second-highest-paid player in the franchise's history in terms of total contract value with a five-year, $155 million deal.

With four teams clearly in win-now mode, the AL East is a true meat grinder, and the Boston Red Sox have lost any edge they thought they had built by trading for Sonny Gray. But there are other needle-movers still out there, and the Red Sox were linked to one such stud on Wednesday evening.

If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google.

Red Sox "in" on Freddy Peralta

According to Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic, the Red Sox are in a diverse group of teams that have checked in on Milwaukee Brewers All-Star starting pitcher Freddy Peralta -- a group that includes the Orioles and the Red Sox's bitterest rival of all within the division.

"A week ago, the Milwaukee Brewers viewed the interest in right-hander Freddy Peralta as significant enough for them to consider “cracking the door open” for trade discussions," wrote Rosenthal and Sammon. "The Brewers left the door ajar at the winter meetings, and naturally, teams came barging through."

"The Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and Houston Astros are among the teams in on Peralta, according to people familiar with the Brewers’ discussions."

Yes, the Red Sox have already acquired two starting pitchers via trade this season. But Peralta is a true game-changer, one of only a few pitchers around the game who could measure up to Garrett Crochet as a co-ace. Gray, meanwhile, is a passable No. 2 if his inflated ERA comes back to where his xERA says he should be, but he'd be a fantastic No. 3.

Is it going to take a package that seems ridiculous for a one-year rental? Almost definitely. But if the Red Sox were operating the way a big-market team should (iffy, we know), they'd immediately extend the 29-year-old workhorse, too.

It's obviously much easier to write about trading for Peralta on the internet than it is to pry him loose from a first-place team when a bunch of other teams are hell-bent on getting him. But this is one of the few opportunities the Red Sox might have to flip the power dynamics of the division back in their favor.

More MLB: Red Sox Lose 22-Year-Old Mystery Prospect To AL East Rival Rays