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Red Sox’ Jarren Duran on trade rumors, how he’s ‘always disappointed’ in himself
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- Red Sox’ Jarren Duran on trade rumors, how he’s ‘always disappointed’ in himself
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Jarren Duran ’s name got mentioned in several trade rumors this past offseason.
The Red Sox have four capable starting outfielders in Duran, Roman Anthony , Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu . Some speculated chief baseball officer Craig Breslow might trade Duran or Abreu to improve a weaker area of the roster .
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“I never look at that stuff,” Duran said Monday at JetBlue Park. “My parents look at it enough for me. So they text me and go, ‘Did you get traded?’ I’m like, ‘You really think I’m not going to tell you if I get traded? Come on.’ So, no, I never give it any two cents. It’s in God’s hands and whatever happens, happens.”
Trade rumors involving Duran aren’t anything new . They have been happening for years.
He said his parents always let him know about the rumors each new trade cycle.
“And then I kind of tell them like, ‘Hey, you don’t need to be doing that. I’m going to let you know if it happens,’” Duran said. “And then they kind of mellow down from there.”
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Duran’s OPS dropped 60 points from 2024 (when he finished eighth for the AL MVP) to 2025.
“I’m always disappointed in myself,” Duran said. “I always feel like I don’t do the best that I can do. And I feel like I let the fans down sometimes or my teammates. But it’s a new year. I just gotta flush it and go out and do my thing. I come in every time and try to work my hardest. And I know that my teammates and the fans realize that I’m always working my hardest, so that’s all I can do.”
He said he always enters every spring training with the same mentality.
“I don’t think my role’s ever given to me,” Duran said. “We all know that baseball, anything could happen. So I never come in with that mentality. It’s the same mentality every year. I come in and whatever the front office needs for me, I’m going to go out there and do to the best of my ability, wherever they need me.”
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He’s confident he can bounce back against lefties in 2026 after batting .211 with a .260 on-base percentage, .340 slugging percentage and .600 OPS in 209 plate appearances against them last year.
“‘23 was pretty good. ’24 was pretty good,” he said. “Lefties make adjustments, too. They know what I hit really good, so they make adjustments. So I did pretty good against left in ’24. So in ‘25, they adjusted. In ‘26, I can adjust to them.”
Last week, Trevor Story named Duran as one of the players who can step up and take on more of a leadership role .
The Red Sox lost two important clubhouse leaders. Alex Bregman signed a five-year, $175 million contract with the Cubs . Meanwhile, Rob Refsnyder signed a one-year, $6.25 million contract with the Mariners .
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“It’s tough. I’m going to miss those guys a lot,” Duran said.
But Duran said that the Red Sox still have “a really good clubhouse.”
“We got a lot of young guys that are great leaders just by their actions,” Duran said. “And Trevor’s already dragging me over to his side of the locker room to be next to him. So I’m gonna have to help him clean his locker. And then he’s already taking Rob’s spot on the airplane, so we’re gonna have to see how that works. I’m a sleeper on the airplane, so we’ll see what he wants to do on that.”
Duran described the 2026 Red Sox as “really athletic.”
“We’ve got great clubhouse guys,” he said. “I think we’re going to win the World Series every year. That’s just like my mentality. I know AC (manager Alex Cora) thinks like that, too. So I think we could go all the way to the World Series. Why not?”
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With a crowded outfield, there’s a potential scenario where Anthony and Duran share time at DH and in left field to get both in the lineup.
“I haven’t heard anything like that,” Duran said. “So I don’t know. But whatever they need me to do, I’m gonna do. I haven’t heard any talks like that, but wherever AC and the front office needs me, I’m gonna go do my best job.”
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