{"id":2183827,"date":"2025-12-02T08:35:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2183827"},"modified":"2025-12-02T08:35:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T08:35:18","slug":"if-the-red-sox-want-cole-ragans-they-need-to-pay-a-hefty-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/if-the-red-sox-want-cole-ragans-they-need-to-pay-a-hefty-price\/","title":{"rendered":"If the Red Sox want Cole Ragans, they need to pay a hefty price"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Yes, we\u2019ve already covered the trade rumors<\/a> about the Royals and Jarren Duran. But one thing that has persistently been raised in the rumor mill since mid-season is that the Red Sox want Cole Ragans to be a part of a deal in which they\u2019d give up Duran. So it makes sense to revisit what a trade for Duran might look like with that in mind. Here are a few options.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

This was the first trade I came up with while I was playing with the Baseball Trade Values tool, and it\u2019s one the website would consider \u201cfair.\u201d I brought it up to my podcast co-host, Jacob Milham, in our latest episode<\/a>. He suggested subbing in Payton Tolle for Bello instead, which would raise this to a slight overpay on BTV, but not unreasonably so. Feel free to substitute Tolle\u2019s name in your own mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Royals could do it:<\/strong> Duran would solve their left field problems for three years, with the ability to shift to center if they found another left field bat and decided to move on from Kyle Isbel. Brayan Bello could easily step into the rotation, and while he doesn\u2019t offer the ace upside of Ragans, he\u2019s been pretty solid for multiple years, is at a reasonable price for his production, and under club control for the next five seasons. Garrett Whitlock was one of the best relievers in baseball last season, worth an incredible 2.2 fWAR in only 72 innings, and would give the Royals the potential for the closest they\u2019ve come to having an HDH combo in the backend of their \u2018pen since 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Royals shouldn\u2019t do it:<\/strong> Successful playoff teams typically have at least one ace-level starter and one superstar position player. For the Dodgers last year, it was Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Without Ragans, the Royals would no longer have that ace unless Seth Lugo bounces back or Kris Bubic can stay healthy for an entire season for the first time since 2022. Both of those are real possibilities, but you\u2019d rather hope they\u2019re pushing you over the top rather than helping you meet the bare minimum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Also, this might be a fair trade on BTV, but it represents a severe<\/em> dip in Ragans\u2019 value since last offseason. The Royals have very little incentive to deal Ragans as if he\u2019s truly missing as much value as BTV thinks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Red<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

This proposal would be a massive overpay, according to BTV, but I still don\u2019t think I\u2019d be willing to do this one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Royals could do it: <\/strong>Duran is still Duran, but now they\u2019d also potentially be solving their infield problems as well with top prospect Marcelo Mayer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Royals shouldn\u2019t do it: <\/strong>Duran is still Duran, but this would leave them without a starting pitcher, and Marcelo Mayer has a lot of red flags in his profile. Despite AAA hitting being completely out of control last year, Mayer only had a 113 wRC+ in 43 games. When he came to the big leagues, he had an 80 wRC+ before going on the IL for the rest of the year with a wrist injury. He has trouble with breaking stuff and a lot of his projectable value comes from a terrific defensive reputation at shortstop and the promise of a lot of left-handed power from that position. He simply wouldn\u2019t be as valuable defensively for the Royals, since he wouldn\u2019t play short for them, and they\u2019re looking to add consistency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

BTV thinks Mayer could provide significantly more excess value than Kristian Campbell (more on him in a moment) going forward, but that assumes his injuries don\u2019t continue to be a problem and he learns to hit better. I think they\u2019re overvaluing Mayer a lot here, and FanGraphs gives Campbell a 60-grade Future Value, but Mayer only a 55.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Finally, adding Duran is difficult enough with how lefty-heavy their lineup leans. Adding Mayer as another<\/em> lefty doesn\u2019t seem like a great plan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Now we\u2019re getting somewhere<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

The first thing you\u2019ll probably note is that this trade doesn\u2019t include Jarren Duran. That\u2019s for one simple reason. Jarren Duran isn\u2019t good enough to be the centerpiece for a trade for Cole Ragans. With the amount of talent Ragans has and the amount of control he has left, Duran simply isn\u2019t a big enough get to be the main attraction in a trade for the left-handed ace. This is the kind of deal I think I would be willing to accept on behalf of the Royals, and the sort of thing they\u2019re probably imagining when they say, \u201c[No one is] off limits. [\u2026] There would have to be a really big return for one [starter] in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Royals should do this:<\/strong> Listen, an ace is all well and good, but if you can get two of the most promising young bats in the sport that happen to play at your two positions of greatest need, and they\u2019ve already signed extensions controlling their costs for the foreseeable future? You do that deal. Add in Whitlock, and your team is drastically better four nights out of five for years<\/em>, and not much worse on that fifth night, depending on how you choose to fill that rotation spot. With the lineup set up for massive success, the Royals could definitely go out and pay one of the top starting pitcher free agents a fair deal to come to KC and support the starters they\u2019ve already got on staff. If they think they can fix Zac Gallen, they might not even have to pay that much.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Why the Red Sox might not do this:<\/strong> It\u2019s really tough to trade away a player right after you convince him to commit to your team long term. Even tougher when that player is a rookie or sophomore. The Red Sox would be doing it with two of them in Anthony and Campbell. But if you want to add a known ace to your rotation with years of control left, the cost is going to be painful. If the Red Sox really want to get their hands on Cole Ragans, this is what it should cost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Hopefully, that gives you a better idea of the value of Cole Ragans in a trade and why you shouldn\u2019t be too worried about the Royals trading him. Either they won\u2019t, or they\u2019re going to get back such a haul that you\u2019ll be able to find solace in the new players joining the team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.royalsreview.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, we\u2019ve already covered the trade rumors about the Royals and Jarren Duran. But one thing that has persistently been raised in the rumor mill since mid-season is that the Red Sox want Cole Ragans to be a part of a deal in which they\u2019d give up Duran. So it makes sense to revisit what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2183828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[242317,386045],"class_list":["post-2183827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-hok-talk","tag-royals-trade-rumors-hot-stove"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/If-the-Red-Sox-want-Cole-Ragans-they-need-to.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183829,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183827\/revisions\/2183829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2183828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}