Ex-GM Names Three Starting Pitchers Most Likely To Be Traded

With the clock ticking down to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline on July 31, Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has provided multiple clues recently that he intends to add an impact player to further his team’s chances of making a postseason run.

With glaring needs in the starting rotation and first base, it remains to be seen what direction Breslow and his baseball operations department might be headed in with plenty of prospect capital available to trade, and the balance of $313.5 recovered from trading disgruntled slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants last month, waiting to be spent.

The Red Sox have been prominently connected to first base options such as Josh Naylor and Ryan O’Hearn over the last month, while also rumored to be interested in trading for Minnesota Twins All-Star Joe Ryan and Arizona Diamondbacks right-handers Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen.

Former MLB general manager and current Athletic baseball insider Jim Bowden was a guest on the Foul Territory podcast on Wednesday and named three pitchers who he believes are near locks to be traded at the deadline next week. Unsurprisingly, a couple of rumored Red Sox trade targets are on his list.

“I think the safest trades right now are for Mitch Keller, Seth Lugo and Merrill Kelly,” said Bowden. “I think those are the three pitchers most likely traded, and I think they’re the three that are the lowest risk of all them out there.”

While Kelly was recently named by baseball insider Ken Rosenthal as a pitcher who makes sense for the Red Sox at the deadline, Bowden believes three other teams, including two American League East rivals, will be more likely to acquire the trio of pitchers before the deadline passes next week.

“Now, who has enough to get them? I mean, the Cubs certainly are a team that has that,” said Bowden. “The Yankees, I think, have enough, and I know that’s a priority for them. And don’t sleep on the Blue Jays. I don’t think their farm system is as good as the Cubs or Yankees, but, you know, they are all in right now, right? I think they smell this right now.”