The buzz continues to grow around the Boston Red Sox and offensive trade candidates with a day to go until the 2026 Major League Baseball trade deadline.
Crunch time is here. The deadline is coming on Monday and Boston is looking all over the place. The Red Sox have been connected to a handful of candidates around the league at various positions, including catcher, shortstop, and the bullpen. Shortstop has been the position that has made the most headlines. Zach Neto of the Los Angeles Angels has popped up, but the reported asking price arguably is too high at this moment. Boston reportedly called the Cincinnati Reds about Elly De La Cruz, but didn’t get anywhere.
CJ Abrams of the Washington Nationals is another player who has been reportedly on Boston’s radar.
When it comes to catcher, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon dropped an intriguing nugget on Sunday and reported that Boston has shown interest in Miami Marlins backstop Liam Hicks.
The Red Sox Are Eyeing Miami
“As the Miami Marlins ponder trade scenarios, they are discussing catcher Liam Hicks and first baseman/outfielder Kyle Stowers more actively than shortstop Otto López and second baseman Xavier Edwards, according to league sources briefed on their conversations,” Rosenthal and Sammon wrote. “The Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox are among the teams interested in Hicks, the person said. The New York Yankees are not involved in the talks.”
This comes after ESPN’s Jeff Passan threw Hicks’ name out there as an option for Boston earlier in the week. Passan specifically speculated about the idea of a package for Hicks and Otto Lopez to kill two birds with one stone.
So, twice in the same week Hicks’ name has been mentioned for Boston.
But why? There’s a lot to like.
Hicks is 27 years old and is under team control through the 2030 season. Right now, he’s slashing .283/.364/.434 with a .798 OPS in his second big league season. On top of this, he has 14 homers, 62 RBIs, and nine doubles in 100 games played. One thing that makes him stand out offensively is the fact that he doesn’t strike out. In his 100 games, he has struck out just 38 times. He’s in the 98th percentile in both strikeout rate and whiff rate.
Hicks is young and would fit Boston’s young core well. If the Marlins are really willing to blow it up, Hicks would be a perfect target. Plus, he’d be less than someone like Hunter Goodman of the Colorado Rockies. That’s for sure.
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