The truth has LEAKED...

The truth has leaked surrounding the Boston Red Sox and their plans at this previous MLB trade deadline involving one of the top prospects in all of baseball, as well as the current standing shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, who a lot of Red Sox nation is in between about. I'm here to break down the new conversation surrounding top prospect, not only the Red Sox system, but one of in all of baseball in Franklin Arias, as well as Trevor Story and how the Red Sox approached the shortstop position at the trade deadline this previous MLB season, as well as what we could expect this offseason with such a premier position. We'll break down all of the moving parts on this episode of Red Sox Digest, but before we get to the news and information, please do us a favor by scrolling down and clicking that subscribe button. We do appreciate all the love and support, so thank you guys for everything. But now let's get to it and break down what actually took place between the Boston Red Sox and Franklin Arias. Again, their top prospect and one of the top prospects in all of baseball, especially at the shortstop position, as well as Trevor Story. Currently the shortstop for the Red Sox going into one of, if possibly the final year of his deal in Boston, who has been a bit underwhelming to say the absolute least outside of last year where he had a 30-30 season. So, we're going to cite this article from Jen McCaffrey, who went on to break down what exactly took place between the Red Sox and what their ideas were at the trade deadline. We know the Red Sox were an extremely busy team at the trade deadline, going out and getting guys like Eric Miller, Adley Rutschman, Curtis Mead, and various others. But it felt like they were on the brink of making one more blockbuster trade, but we didn't know if they were willing to give up someone like Franklin Arias in order to do so. so we learned this from Jen at the trade deadline this past summer the Red Sox according to league sources explored the possibility of selling high in trading Arias for a young controllable shortstop as a way to bolster their 2026 roster for the postseason they opted to keep Arias suggesting how highly they value him and that is should not be a crazy idea and the reason being is because Franklin had a career year this year in obviously double A to start and then finishing in triple A And in double-A, he was hitting like 330. He got to triple-A, and he hit like 315. Overall, the guy absolutely mashed all season long. And the power went from like 60-grade or 50-grade to like 80-grade as he had 25 home runs and was absolutely unstoppable, to say the least. Yes, the underlying metrics on Prospect Savant aren't like Roman Anthony when he was finishing his tenure in minor league baseball, But he still is absolutely phenomenal, not only defensively at both shortstop and second base, where he concluded the year defensively in AAA, but then at the plate as everything improved. He slashed 323 with a 400 OBP and a 957 OPS in 117 games across both AA and AAA. He'd had 25 home runs, 91 RBIs in nine stolen bases, walked 53 times to 74 strikeouts. Overall, this young man proved he is the top prospect in baseball and had a lot of Red Sox fans questioning. Will we see him as a September call up for this Red Sox team? Obviously, Trevor Story was dealing with a sports hernia basically for two thirds, if not three fourths of the season. And when he returned in his rehab stint in AAA, he was absolutely horrible. He had two times as many strikeouts as he did hits. He was whiffing. He was expanding the strike zone. And again, that was against AAA pitching. That wasn't even in the big leagues. Now, he did get up to the big leagues and he was playing relatively consistently and was a strong point for a dormant Red Sox offense because this was post the 32-5 historic run they went on in the dog days of summer again the Red Sox did that without both Roman and Story once Story returned he was good I won't argue against that and that would be a lie if I said otherwise but he tapered off relatively quickly and when he did he returned to the Trevor Story of the beginning of the year and what we saw in his rehab stint where he was expanding the strike zone he was striking out a lot he was not walking which means he was not getting on base and stealing bags like we saw last season when he had a 30-30 year and the Red Sox won what 29 of the 30 games that Story got a stolen base in like he wasn't thrown out once all season maybe once at the very end of the year overall he had a really good season in Boston his best year in Boston but that has not been replicated and it hasn't even been relatively close to being replicated overall just not the performance that we wanted to see from Trevor Story who played such a major part in 2025 season again only playing 10 games 35 total at bats slashing .171 with a .189 OBP and a .200 slugging with a 389 OPS get 11 strikeouts to one walk overall just did not get the job done for the Boston Red Sox and the defense wasn't exactly what we are all looking for was it good yes was it great absolutely not and that was a huge problem for the Red Sox if you look at his current contract he's going into the final let me switch the graphic here if he's going into the final guaranteed year next year in 2029 will be a club option at 23.3 million dollars whether or not the Red Sox take on that money or not is to be determined based off of how things have looked i would highly suggest and assume they would go away from Trevor Story and that 23 basically and a half million dollars a year in the final year of his deal when they have that club option and it is up to them to make that decision. Now, is there a way they get out of this deal and out of Trevor's story before that actually takes place? Based off the quotes from Jen, it doesn't seem all that likely and it makes sense because how are you going to trade someone like Trevor's story with the value he does not have? Jen would go on to say trading Story seems unlikely given his bloated salary age and injury history, which is all abundantly clear. However, if the Red Sox were willing to eat much of his salary or were willing to trade him along with top prospects such as outfielder Justin Gonzalez or catcher Franklin Pomeranz they could find a suitor the caveat here is that Story has a 10-5 rights as a player with 10 years in the league and five straight with the same team meeting he could trade or he could veto any trade which could be a major problem for the Boston Red Sox if Story decides to be a thorn in their side and really just veto any trade they want to go out there and make. Now, Jason and I have discussed this ad nauseum. We will probably discuss it again today at 4 o'clock when we do our Red Sox live stream. Again, if you want to check those out every Monday, either 4 or 5 Eastern Standard Time, we do appreciate if you guys hop in there. We talk about everything going on involving the Boston Red Sox, and now that we're in the offseason, we'll be discussing potential free agent candidates, trade candidates for the Red Sox to improve and bolster their team as they look to remain competitive in a daunting AL East division and really in a daunting league in general now the idea about Trevor Story is interesting and the reason being is because they would much rather and not only we could only assume the organization but the fan base clearly would like to go in a different direction and Franklin Arias being a top prospect not only in their system definitively but in all of baseball especially at a premier position at shortstop why not go with someone like Arias yes you have to eat the money and put Story on the bench and let him be a right-handed platoon bat with defensive options at short and possibly even second base if need be but like why would you not want to go with Franklin based off the season he just had down in the minor leagues he seems like such a respectable and realistic option not only this year but for the foreseeable future in Boston now if they were to trade him we discussed various candidates at shortstop they could go out and get and there was a lot of conversations and speculation that guys like Elly De La Cruz would have been available if I was the Boston Red Sox and Craig Breslow specifically there was only one guy and that is Elly De La Cruz that I would involve Franklin with in a trade scenario especially at this previous MLB trade deadline because of what he would bring to this team switch hitting with power a phenomenal speed and honestly average contact that would go a long way plug him into this Red Sox team would be absolutely terrifying but again it would cost an arm and a leg also known as Franklin Arias plus much more because of how good Elly De La Cruz is and really how young he actually is as well but going in a different direction from Trevor Story seems like the most appropriate option and it seems like we're not the only ones in the sense of Jason I preaching this idea as from the comments this is lower lower cost of living on in the comments from a previous short when are they going to move Trevor Story he's been on the team for four or five years and he's played one i mean enough is enough as much as i really liked him as a player he hasn't done anything on the Red Sox and i don't really disagree outside of last year in 2025 which was a breakout season for Story these are not the Colorado days unfortunately if that was the case this conversation would not be happening but he's not the player everyone wants to see so the big question question at hand is among the chief chief decisions how and when to incorporate their top prospect Franklin Arias the shortstop into the big league mix and what that would mean for the incumbent veteran shortstop Trevor Story overall you got to get off of Trevor Story's contract and like Jen mentioned earlier unless they package him with a top prospect or eat the vast majority of his remaining deal it seems almost impossible to get done which we know the Red Sox already spend a lot of money they have already taken on a lot of money on their books they're going to be in a tough situation to eat a lot of that contract and again that's just not going to be a good financial decision but it could end up being a really good baseball decision so let me know down below how do you guys feel should they commit to Arias now move on from Trevor Story whether it's putting him on the bench and letting him rot for a year before declining a club option next offseason do they try to trade him by eating the contract do they try to trade him by adding a premier prospect not named Franklin Arias to then give Arias the keys again this is a difficult and sticky situation for the Red Sox but it is still possible to move on from Story in one way or another now let me know down below your thoughts and opinions on this entire situation and I will see you guys on the next episode of Red Sox Digest as this is going to be a very interesting offseason to say the least thank you guys for watching