The Tampa Bay Rays might play a major role at the MLB trade deadline, and one of the game’s most connected insiders believes the Boston Red Sox could take advantage.
The Rays, despite contending in the American League East and wild-card races just about all season, have fallen on hard times. Tampa Bay has lost three in a row and seven of its last 10. Kevin Cash’s team is just one game above .500 and is closer to the last-place Baltimore Orioles than it is the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
That puts the Rays in a very tough spot ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Despite the first-half success, it’s not an overly talented roster, and it might be in the organization’s best long-term interests to sell off pieces before the deadline. If they were to go that route, their best position player asset might be first baseman Yandy Diaz.
As ESPN’s Buster Olney pointed out, Diaz would be a great fit for the division rival Red Sox.
“Yandy Diaz would be an absolutely perfect fit for the Red Sox,” Olney tweeted Sunday morning. “He’s making $10 million this year (the Red Sox would be on the hook for about a third of that), and he has a very attractive $12 million option for 2026.”
Diaz does check a lot of boxes for the Red Sox. The former batting title winner plays first base and hits from the right side; Boston could use help in both areas. He’s having another fine season, too, hitting .286 with 18 home runs and 61 RBIs with a 128 OPS+. The Rays have primarily used him as a designated hitter this season, but he played 112 games at first base in 2024 and 118 games at the position the year before.
He could also play third base in a pinch with 290 career appearances at the hot corner. That’s an attractive option for the Red Sox, too, given the recent injury to Marcelo Mayer and the cautious approach being taken with Alex Bregman and his tender quad.
There are two questions the clubs would need to answer, though. The first is whether Tampa Bay would want to deal within the division. Erik Neander has done so in the past, so it presumably wouldn’t be an issue, but perhaps that calculus changes with someone like Diaz who’s not strictly a rental.
That ability to keep him under contract in 2026 leads to the other big question: Is this the sort of player for which the Red Sox would be willing to part with top prospects? Diaz’s skill and controllability will not come cheap but given the uncertainty around injured first baseman Triston Casas (and to a lesser extent, Bregman’s contract), it does seem like a good option for Boston to at least consider.
Some might say perfect.
More MLB: Red Sox Trade Rumors: Insider Gives Most ‘Likely’ Jarren Duran Outcome
The post This Rays Star Slugger Would Be ‘Perfect Fit’ For Red Sox, Insider Says appeared first on Newsweek.
