Sunday, August 16, 2026 — six weeks left in the regular season, and one club’s shopping list carries over to the winter.
The Boston Red Sox made the loudest move of deadline day, sending four of their top ten prospects to Baltimore for Adley Rutschman. What almost nobody noticed is that catcher was their second priority. The first one went unfilled — and it isn’t going away.
They Called About Elly De La Cruz
Per MassLive, the Red Sox contacted Cincinnati about Elly De La Cruz in the days before August 3. The talks went nowhere, but the fact they happened tells you how high Craig Breslow was aiming.
Boston’s offer was reportedly built “mostly” around prospects, and it seems likely Franklin Arias — one of the best prospects in baseball, and a shortstop himself — was in it. That is not a phone call you make casually.
It also wasn’t the only one. Over the final two weeks of July, the Red Sox were connected to Zach Neto, CJ Abrams, Jeremy Peña and Otto Lopez. Every conversation died for the same reasons: Washington and Houston insisted their players weren’t available, the Angels weren’t motivated enough to sell cheap, and Miami’s asking price on Lopez was prohibitive.
Why the Need Is So Acute
Trevor Story has been limited to 41 games by a sports hernia and posted a .547 OPS when he did play. Marcelo Mayer has not established himself. Boston’s second basemen ranked 28th in the majors in wRC+ for most of the season.
For a team that won 15 straight games in July, climbed from worst in the American League into a Wild Card spot, and just added an everyday catcher, the middle infield is now the only obvious hole on the roster. That’s a good problem to have. It’s also an expensive one to solve.
The Winter Board
Zach Neto (Angels). Controlled through 2029. Interim GM John Mozeliak was reportedly open to moving controllable players before the deadline, and the Angels ended up dealing Jo Adell and José Soriano while keeping Neto and Reid Detmers. Industry expectation is that the interest carries into the offseason, and Anaheim will be selling into a market with more bidders and fewer injury unknowns.
CJ Abrams (Nationals). Two more years of control after a season in which he hit .286 with 28 homers, 85 RBIs and 20 steals. Washington sold aggressively at the deadline but kept him, and the sense around the industry is that the rumors came from teams calling rather than the Nationals shopping. Paul Toboni would have to be overwhelmed — but Abrams could return major-league-ready pieces, which is exactly what a rising Washington club would want.
Elly De La Cruz (Reds). The long shot, and the one Boston clearly wants most. Cincinnati has been described as willing to listen on its controllable players, and there was enough smoke around that to be taken seriously. The price would be enormous.
The Currency Problem
Here is what makes this genuinely difficult. Boston just spent Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon, Enddy Azocar, Carlos Narváez and Harold Rivas on Rutschman. That is a serious withdrawal from a farm system that was among the strongest in the sport.
Which puts Arias at the center of everything. He is the piece any of these deals would likely be built around, and he is also a shortstop — meaning Boston would be trading its own future answer at the position to acquire someone else’s.
That’s a defensible trade if the player coming back is De La Cruz or Neto, both of whom are controlled for years. It’s much harder to justify for a shorter-term fix.
The Read
Breslow has already demonstrated this year that he will pay market rate when he believes in the roster. He did it for a catcher who has one additional year of control and was on the injured list at the time of the trade.
A shortstop with three or four years of control is a better asset than that. Expect Boston to be in every conversation this winter — and expect Arias’s name in every rumor.
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