Buster Olney courtesy of WEEI and MLBTR:
Broxton, Soto and Felix Perez for Ellsbury?On Ellsbury possibly being traded this season: “My question about whether or not they would consider trading him would be based on his response if they at any point decide, ‘You know what? We are going to work in a platoon. We are going to use other guys. We are not going to necessarily guarantee him being in the lineup every day.’ And if they felt like that wasn’t something he was going to go along with willingly, then at that point maybe you say, ‘Maybe we should move him out.’ And I’m guessing that one of the things they would be looking at in return, because you’re not going to get a ton of return for all the reasons you stated, would be a bullpen piece.
“There aren’t a lot of teams that would be in the market for him. There are some teams that could use a center fielder, but they are developing teams, not necessarily a contender. It would have to be a contender that would know he would walk away as a free agent at the end of the year and they would be comfortable with that.”
The hot hitting Perez helps bridge the gap until Bradley Jr is ready. Broxton fills the void left by the season ending injury to Hanrahan and protects against the fragility of Andrew Bailey. Plus he is signed for two more years. Soto could help fill in at 1B when Papi needs a breather.
Reds get a stop-gap CF and #2 hitter, shifting Choo to LF and Cozart to the bottom of the order. If Ellsbury performs and Hamilton is ready, give JE a tender offer and collect another first round pick. If Hamilton never figures out AAA pitching, perhaps you could engage Ellsbury in extension talks if Choo is too expensive to keep. Ellsbury would seem affordable especially with the cost savings of offloading Broxton. If Ellsbury continues to tank, he's still a defensive upgrade from the status quo and at least they offloaded Broxton's contract in the process, perhaps freeing up more money to extend Choo. Perez and Soto are purely spare parts at this point.