Red Sox: 3 players who deserve MLB playing time over Jarren Duran
By Drew Koch
Jarren Duran is not getting the job done. Which three players on the Boston Red Sox roster should be getting playing time over the centerfielder?
Being a top prospect isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Jarren Duran is learning that the hard way. The 25-year-old has received a relatively long look in the center field and, at times, Duran has looked utterly lost.
That was especially true over the weekend during the seventh inning of Sunday’s game between the Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals. The Royals won the affair by a final score of 13-5 and are in the AL East cellar with a little less than two months until postseason play gets underway.
The Red Sox are in no-man’s land; 4.5 games out of the Wild Card and after failing to do much of anything at the trade deadline, unless things make an abrupt turn, Chaim Bloom and the Boston front office may want to turn their attention to next season.
Now that doesn’t mean that the team should give up on Jarren Duran as the team’s centerfielder, but perhaps he should not be receiving as much playing time over the last two months of the 2022 season. Are there any players who should be receiving playing time instead? Let’s look at three possibilities.
1. Jeter Downs should be getting playing time over Red Sox CF Jarren Duran.
No, Jeter Downs does not play center field, but the Boston Red Sox need to see what they have in the in the young infielder. With Xander Bogaerts able to opt out of current contract during the offseason and Trevor Story on the IL, it’s the perfect time to see if Downs has a future in the Boston infield.
Downs was a key acquisition in the trade that sent Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers, so to just give up on the 24-year-old would send a horrendous message to the fanbase. While it’s true that Downs looked overmatched during his time in the bigs earlier this season, the rookie only received 41 at-bats.
Jarren Duran has been underwhelming since coming up to the major leagues earlier this season. The Red Sox have a nice mix of outfielders who could fill in if Boston’s front office decided to option Duran back to Triple-A in order to work on a few things.