It’s not rare that players are outspoken as MLB’s trade deadline nears. Though, generally players are usually commenting on impending doom and the likelihood that their underperforming ballclub sells off assets to World Series contending teams in exchange for prospects. Kenley Jansen does not want that to be the Boston Red Sox come Aug. 1.
The Red Sox (48-43 record) enter the second half in the cellar of the American League East. However, no other division in baseball is every team at least five games over .500. While the Red Sox remain nine games out of first place in the AL East, Boston is only two games out of a Wild Card spot. The Wild Card race will likely be hotly contested and Jansen believes the Red Sox should be right in the thick of things.
Of course, it all depends on what happens between now and the trade deadline, but Jansen has made his opinion on the matter clear.
“I think we’ve got a great team. I think if we keep playing good baseball, I don’t think it’s going to be a sale,” he said via Jon Heyman of the New York Post.
Heyman reports that if the Red Sox do choose to sell, Jansen along with Justin Turner and Kiké Hernandez would be among the available candidates, as well as James Paxton.
That remains to be seen though, as the Red Sox have a little more than two weeks to change the narrative.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.