Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
The Red Sox could absorb a large salary via trade to “buy” a prospect
The Boston Red Sox face the difficult challenge of upgrading their current roster to vault the team back into contention while simultaneously rebuilding their depleted farm system. Those goals are typically opposites that don’t work in tandem with one another but there is a way to accomplish both.
The clearest path to a short-term fix would be diving into the free-agent market. Unfortunately, the top options that fill a position of need come with a qualifying offer attached, meaning the Red Sox would need to forfeit their second-round draft pick in order to sign them.