The number that explains Boston’s shortstop chaos doesn’t belong to CJ Abrams, Zach Neto, or Jeremy Peña individually. It’s one: the number of those three shortstops the Red Sox can realistically land before the trade deadline closes.
Boston has spent the last week floating all three names to reporters, and the pattern says more about the front office than any of the players do. Two days ago, the Red Sox landed third baseman Curtis Mead from Washington for pitching prospect Connelly Early, their one clean trade chip of the summer, and slotted him straight into the lineup. Everything since has read like improvisation. A team that ranks 25th in MLB in runs scored needs offense, not a wish list, and right now Boston has a wish list.
Jeff Passan said as much on Pat McAfee’s show last week:
https://twitter.com/PatMcAfeeShow/status/2079625583902785864
Trying to add talent and actually adding it are two different verbs, and the gap between them is the whole story here.
Why CJ Abrams Is the Only Target Worth the Price
CJ Abrams is a two-time All-Star hitting .295 with a .938 OPS, 27 home runs, and 19 stolen bases for Washington this season, numbers no other shortstop on Boston’s list comes close to touching. He’s also under arbitration control for two more seasons, meaning the Red Sox wouldn’t just be renting a hot summer.
He’s not without holes. Abrams rates 11 outs below average at shortstop this season, per ESPN’s numbers relayed by Jeff Passan. Translate that: it’s roughly the equivalent of giving up eleven extra hits over a full season just by penciling him in at short, most of a win vanishing into positioning he can’t quite make up for with his legs. Boston would be buying an elite bat and living with a shortstop who plays a tick below average with the glove. That’s a real trade-off, but it’s the only one on this list that comes with a superstar attached. Abrams also happens to be the hardest of the three to actually pry loose, which is the joke sitting underneath this entire search.
The Peña Math Never Worked
Boston already tried this one. The Red Sox approached the Astros about Jeremy Peña and were turned down immediately, because Houston sees itself as a deadline buyer sitting within two games of a Wild Card spot, not a seller.
The appeal is obvious in hindsight. Peña is hitting .302/.362/.472 with a .982 career OPS at Fenway Park, a batting average and slugging line that would start for almost any team in baseball, which is exactly why Boston called in the first place. Passan put the trade odds at roughly 35 percent even before the Astros said no, which was already a polite way of saying the smart money leaned against it. Houston’s response just confirmed the math everyone should have run beforehand: a team fighting for a playoff spot doesn’t sell its shortstop in July, no matter what the phone call sounds like on the other end. Peña also carries limited team control left before free agency, which only sharpens the question of why a Wild Card contender would ever sell into a race it’s still trying to win.
What Zach Neto Would Actually Cost
The Angels are “at very least listening” on Neto, but they’re prioritizing trades of starting pitchers Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano instead, and executives who’ve dealt with the Los Angeles Angels sense no urgency to move a 25-year-old with three-plus years of team control left.
Neto’s numbers explain both sides of that hesitation. He’s hitting .238/.326/.446 with 19 home runs, but he’s also struck out 139 times, the most in the American League, meaning he whiffs in roughly one of every three trips to the plate. He’s also 8 outs below average defensively, so the glove isn’t bailing out the strikeouts either. And yet the Angels still want prospect Franklin Arias as the centerpiece of any return, a price Boston has already declined to pay. That’s not a stalled negotiation so much as two sides that haven’t actually started one. A 25-year-old under control into 2029 is worth protecting even through a rough year at the plate, and the Angels are acting like they know it. Houston and Los Angeles are running the same logic through different math: a shortstop who can still help you win is a shortstop you keep, strikeouts and all.
Why Chasing Three Shortstops Is Riskier Than Picking One
Spreading interest across three names looks like leverage from the outside, but it functions like a hedge, and hedges cost time. Peña is already gone. Neto’s market isn’t moving before the deadline. That leaves Abrams as the only real path to an upgrade, and every day Boston spends citing all three is a day it isn’t closing on the one that matters.
Boston isn’t the only front office improvising through this deadline. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal trade deadline saga has swallowed most of the industry’s attention, and it’s a useful reminder that even the biggest names don’t move until a team blinks first. The Red Sox don’t have Skubal’s gravity pulling this along. They have a third baseman, Curtis Mead, who left his Red Sox debut with a wrist injury before he’d proven anything, and a shortstop search that’s still just three names on a list. Whatever Boston decides, the rest of the MLB trade market isn’t waiting around for the front office to make up its mind.
Give me Abrams, even at the defensive cost. Everything else on this list was noise dressed up as options.
