Jarren Duran just wrote his own Red Sox pink slip with more senseless drama

To say Jarren Duran has been struggling with the Boston Red Sox this season would be vastly understating the issue. His .589 OPS on the season is the second-worst in MLB among qualified hitters and has seemingly dive-bombed any trade value he had remaining from his breakout 2024 season, in which he won All-Star Game MVP. But after showing up Red Sox star Willson Contreras and/or third-base coach Chad Epperson on Thursday night in Sacramento, there's little reason for him to be in Boston beyond the trade deadline.

In the top of the sixth inning on Thursday, with the Red Sox and A's tied at 3-3, Duran came up with runners on second and third. He, quite frankly, missed a mistake-pitch and hit a pop-up to left field. With a shallow ball in the outfield and the not-so-speedy Contreras on third, Epperson held the runner. As Duran walked to the dugout, however, he yelled and gestured at the pair that they should've ran before reportedly slamming an iPad and ranting in the dugout.

Jarren Duran is a problem the Red Sox should no longer suffer

The incident itself is not a good look. You have a veteran player who is supposed to be an energetic leader trying to show up the best hitter on the team, Contreras, and one of his coaches on a play where the pair at third base were pretty clearly correct for not sending the runner. And it's even more egregious coming from a hitter in Duran who is hitting sub-.200 on the season with the aforementioned second-worst OPS in baseball.

I'm not going to pretend that this incident on Thursday is the most heinous act in the world. It's something we've seen time and again when frustrations are high. At the same time, it's another moment in a pattern from Duran that indicates he simply can't adequately control his emotions on the field. There have been numerous incidents with him engaging negatively with fans (to put it kindly). And now we have this added to the mix as well.

For what it's worth, after the game, both Duran and Red Sox manager Chad Tracy downplayed the incident. Tracy indicated that Duran was yelling about his frustrations with himself (though the audio overheard from the broadcast says otherwise), while the outfielder said it was "nothing" and that fans and the media "don't have to know".

Amid all of these issues, though, the blatant truth is that the Red Sox could better plow through them if Duran was performing on the field. He's not. His defenders will point to the fact that he's second on the team in RBIs this season, which is certainly worth noting, and has better numbers with runners in scoring position than in every other situation. But again, even that makes it hard to justify holding onto a player who is hitting .195 with a .589 OPS on the season.

The Red Sox are in a terrible position now with Jarren Duran

In no way am I rooting for Jarren Duran to fail. Regardless of how anyone personally feels about the outfielder, any fan of the Red Sox should hope that ostensibly an everyday player helps the baseball team win games as they've surged into the playoff race. Duran, however, isn't doing that while also becoming a far-too-consistent source of drama.

From the Red Sox perspective in this situation, though, the next steps with Duran are next to impossible. Yes, we've seen the peaks of the outfielder with a 6.8 fWAR season in 2024 and a 3.9 fWAR campaign last year (despite it being turbulently up-and-down), but we're now more than 100 games into the 2026 season and he's produced negative Wins Above Replacement. Throwing in being a proverbial unnecessary distraction on top of that, his value has never been lower.

Put simply, I'm not sure what the Red Sox could get for Duran before the Aug. 3 trade deadline at this point. Maybe there are teams who would be willing to take a low-cost flier on a reclamation project given the heights he's reached. However, there's not going to be anything close to the reported Padres offer from last year's trade deadline of Dylan Cease (on an expiring deal) and top prospect Ethan Salas.

Thus, it's difficult to ascertain where the Red Sox go from here with Duran. Roman Anthony finally began taking swings again, signaling a potential late-season return. Jahmai Jones and Masataka Yoshida could form a platoon in left field to replace Duran until Anthony's return. The question, however, is if Craig Breslow will be willing to sell low on Duran considering consistent reporting that the Boston front office has largely overvalued him.

What does seem clear, though, is that this is the final straw for Duran with the Red Sox. Underperformance, to some degree, can be dealt with when a player is a positive veteran clubhouse presence. Conversely, some drama is passable if the player is getting it done on the diamond. But when both are happening simultaneously, the situation becomes untenable — and that's the point that Jarren Duran has now reached in Boston.

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