A few months ago the Red Sox looked like sellers. Now they're one of the hottest teams in baseball, and that turnaround has completely flipped their deadline plans. Instead of shopping veterans, Boston's front office is reportedly scouring the middle infield market looking for an upgrade at shortstop, and MLB Trade Rumors made it official Sunday night.
MLB Trade Rumors dropped the report confirming Boston's shortstop search.
The Red Sox already made one modest infield swap with Washington this month, sending pitcher Connelly Early to the Nationals for Curtis Mead, per Boston.com. But that trade was small potatoes compared to what's reportedly still on the table. Boston's actual dream target is said to be Angels shortstop Zach Neto, a 24-homer bat the front office views as a strong fit — problem is, Neto's under club control for 3 more years, so the Angels have zero urgency to move him without a blowaway offer.
That's where the Nationals come back into the picture. Washington's CJ Abrams is having a monster year — a.286/.359/.544 line with 24 home runs and a league-leading 76 RBI over 99 games — exactly the kind of impact bat that would instantly reshape Boston's lineup. The catch, according to reporting, is that most of the industry still expects Washington to hang onto him rather than deal a 25-year-old All-Star-caliber shortstop mid-breakout.
Ken Rosenthal's Fair Territory pod flagged the Red Sox-Nationals angle among a slate of deadline storylines.
Rosenthal's rundown ties directly into the bigger picture here: Boston isn't just kicking tires, they're treating the deadline like a real chance to close a roster gap after one of the best stretches of baseball in the sport this season. Reports have the Red Sox going 19-2 over their last 21 games, the kind of run that turns a fringe team into a division threat and changes the calculus on what ownership is willing to spend to upgrade.
With the deadline landing August 3 at 6 p.m. ET, Boston doesn't have much runway left to figure out which version of this trade actually happens. A Neto deal would require the Angels to blink on a controllable star; an Abrams deal would require Washington to sell high on a guy in the middle of a career year. Either way, the Red Sox have made clear they're not standing pat at short — and that alone is a wild sentence for a team that looked like it might be selling in May.