NEW YORK — With just under two months until the Aug. 3 trade deadline, it’s too early to make any significant moves, particularly with a murky American League playoff picture. That AL parity, though, has kept the Boston Red Sox in wild-card contention.With that in mind, the Red Sox continue to field calls, weighing their options as buyers and sellers.With three catchers on the big-league roster — Carlos Narváez, Connor Wong and Mickey Gasper — Boston’s surplus is drawing interest. The Red Sox are shopping Wong in particular, according to a league source, and have also fielded calls on relievers Aroldis Chapman, Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock. The Red Sox have said — for now — they have no interest in dealing anyone from that bullpen trio.By the end of the month, Boston’s trade deadline intentions should have more clarity. With 100 games left in the regular season as of Saturday, there is time for the Red Sox to plug the holes in their sinking ship, particularly during a stretch when they will face AL East teams in three of their next four series and four times by the end of June.“I think early is probably the right word,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said Friday before a convincing 5-3 win over the New York Yankees. “(We’re) having a lot of conversations, a lot of discussions, and I think it’s been kind of true industry-wide. But there are a lot of teams that probably feel pretty similar to us, which is to say that they have confidence in their rosters, they know they’re not playing as well as they’re capable of, and really, nobody is kind of putting the postseason out of reach. So there are a bunch of teams that are in it right now and are thinking along the same lines as we are.”Friday’s win showed the potential the Red Sox have too often squandered the very next day. Sonny Gray held New York to three runs in 6 1/3 innings. Andruw Monasterio and Willson Contreras homered, and Monasterio made a key unassisted double play in the fourth to halt a bigger inning in which New York had already scored.The Yankees, of course, were without their linchpin, Aaron Judge, who they learned on Friday will be out for an extended period with a rib cage fracture.But that injury may create an opportunity for the Red Sox. For much of the season, they’ve looked like sellers. They arguably should be sellers. But in firing Alex Cora and six coaches on April 25, Breslow said he believed in the roster and wanted to give it time to turn the season around.“I think we need to run our own race,” he said Friday. “We need to make sure that we kind of get our own house in order. We need to play better. We need to win more games, and at that point, we can kind of figure out where we are relative to the league. But I think the first thing is to continue to build on the progress that we’ve seen offensively over the last month, and then make sure that we’re pitching consistently well, and we need to win games for any of this to matter.”The Red Sox are already known to be seeking a right-handed hitter, as The Athletic reported two weeks ago. But their surplus of big-league catchers is an enticing commodity. Though Wong alone won’t land a major impact bat, pairing him with a prospect or another player on the big-league roster could be a start.In 26 games, Wong is hitting .264 with a .713 OPS, but the Red Sox have been navigating a tricky setup with their catching trio. Narváez, who has started 35 games behind the plate, has seen his playing time tail off since the Red Sox recalled Gasper on May 7.The Red Sox think highly of Gasper, a switch hitter whose hot bat has forced him into the lineup in 20 of 25 games since he joined the club. He’s hitting .306 with a .740 OPS. On Friday, interim manager Chad Tracy penciled Gasper in at designated hitter with Wong behind the plate. But Gasper has also caught five of the past 10 games while Narváez, who was the starting catcher last season in 106 games, has appeared in four games over the past two weeks.Meanwhile, the roster construction issues that could be corrected at the deadline persist elsewhere. Roman Anthony is still on the injured list with a sprained right ring finger, but his eventual return will reignite the outfield shuffle conversation for Breslow at a time when Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu are playing well.It seems outlandish to even consider the Red Sox as potential buyers, given they sit in last place in the AL East at 27-35.But in early June last year, the Red Sox entered a series in New York at 30-34, nine games behind the first-place Yankees, before going 10-3 in their next 13 games, finishing the year on a 59-39 run and squeaking into the playoffs.Last season, the roster included Rafael Devers until mid-June. But it was without Alex Bregman, who’d landed on the injured list in May.As AL teams flounder through the first half with just five teams above .500, the Red Sox have a chance to prove they’re worth some additional help, even if Breslow balked at the idea of viewing it that way.“I don’t think it’s a ‘prove’ type thing,” Breslow said. “I have a lot of confidence in the players that we have. I’ve seen the way that they’ve grown together, that they’ve taken to the work. They’re committed to doing everything they can to turn this around in the same way that we are.”
The Red Sox arguably should sell, but AL parity makes it complicated
The Red Sox have a catching surplus and are shopping one of their backstops to other teams, according to a league source.














