MLB Rumors: Kenley Jansen trade, Cubs Bellinger replacement, Cards dealing

MLB Rumors: Red Sox could look to trade Kenley Jansen's salary

The Boston Red Sox have been active of late, signing Lucas Giolito to improve their rotation, only to then trade away Chris Sale (and a large portion of his salary) in exchange for Vaughn Grissom. While the Red Sox got more durability with Giolito replacing Sale and got their second baseman, it can be argued that they downgraded at the position they needed to upgrade the most, their rotation.

Fortunately for Boston, there are still some high-level free agents who they could easily sign and improve the pitching after all. I mean, they are the Red Sox, right? You'd think the Red Sox could sign anyone they wanted to (they can) but the Red Sox appear to only be interested in signing a talented free agent if they clear money first, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com.

They are paying a large portion of Sale's contract, but still saved a little over $10 million by trading him for Grissom. They already dumped the Alex Verdugo contract (although they replaced him with Tyler O'Neill). Now it looks like they're going to use their closer as trade bait just to cut more money so they sign a starting pitcher.

If they're going to dump anyone, getting rid of Jansen who is 36 years old and making $16 million in 2024 makes sense, but again, the Red Sox should not have to be doing this. They likely wouldn't get much at all in return for a slightly overpaid Jansen, and would just be making their team worse in another area so they can upgrade the rotation. The Red Sox would still have quality relievers to pitch the late innings like Chris Martin, John Schreiber, and Josh Winckowski, but Jansen was among the best closers in the American League for much of last season. This would be a big blow.

Cotillo doesn't even think it's a question about if Jansen goes. He thinks it's more of a matter of when. Our question is to which team?