IF and that’s a big if, Jarren Duran from the Boston Red Sox is available the Philadelphia Phillies should do whatever it takes to get him here.
If you have watched the Phillies and believe that a Max Kepler, Brandon Marsh, Johan Rojas combination is a championship caliber outfield please give me what you’re smoking. I purposely did not include Nick Castellanos in that because he is perfectly fine in right field and honestly, come October we have seen him make some great plays.
Duran is a 28 year old outfielder and as us Phillies fans know, the outfield is one of the areas the Phils need a major upgrade. Duran would immediately fill that need and could also be a major spark for the offense as well. I mean just look at what he has been doing recently.
Imagine this guy hitting in front of Harper and Schwarber?
Sure, in the early stages of his career he struggled as he was still learning to play the position. But, now a few years in and his fielding has become one of the better aspects of his game. Out of the three guys I mentioned, only Rojas is probably close to him when it comes to fielding.
Which brings me to my next point…If you go with Rojas we have seen how much he struggles at the plate at times. Bringing in Duran would solve both the fielding issue and would also give this lineup a much different look come October.
Duran is a guy that just gets on base(Shoutout Moneyball). He’s a career .272 hitter, while Rojas sits at .259 and we’ve watched him disappear at the plate come the postseason. Duran has yet to sniff the playoffs with the Red Sox but he just seems like a guy that is built for October baseball. He’s hungry and you can just tell by the way he plays the game.
The Red Sox currently sit in 4th place in the AL East and 4.5 games back of a Wild Card spot. Granted, it’s still early in terms of the baseball season and they are for sure a team that could make a run as we get into the summer months.
But if they are open to moving Duran, the Phillies have the prospects to make the move. Now, there are some cases where I’d be hesitant to move on from some of our younger guys but Duran is not one of those cases.
This guy is only 28 years old and has plenty of great baseball left in him. If the Phillies are serious about making a World Series run the Jarren Duran should be one of the top guys on their trade list.
The MLB trade deadline is July 31st so there is still plenty of time for rumors to continue to build. But as the saying goes…where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
-Walsh
The Philly Phan Cave 
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