The Red Sox May Be Headed To Arbitration With Their Best Player Over A Measly $500,000 And Man Is That Embarrassing

What a season Jarren Duran had for the Boston Red Sox in 2024, absolutely earned his spot at the table as one of the best players in the American League. All-Star MVP, 8th place finish in the MVP race, lead MLB with 48 doubles, tied for first with 14 triples, 34 stolen bags, 21 bombs, 75 driven in and an .834 OPS. Hell of a year for Durran, so naturally when he gets to arbitration with Boston you'd think they would reward him, right? WRONG.

The numbers have come out annnnnnnd the Red Sox (who we were supposed to believe were offering $700 million for Juan Soto) appear to be penny pinching when it comes to their star player. Duran filed at $4 million, Sox came to him at $3.5 million. In what world are you blue balling your stud 8.7 WAR player over $500K? What an awful, embarrassing move to pull. Arbitration itself is such a weird way to go about things, but baseball has done it for 3 million years so that's how they're going to do it. but Duran was getting a nice raise to his performance last season and now ends up risking going to arbitration to argue against his team why he deserves an extra $500,000. 

Why didn't Boston see his request and go "you know what, you got it Jarren. Played your ass off for us last year, you're in your first year of Arb and it's only $500,000 so let's make sure you get yourself paid!" It's crazy that they didn't accept it and keep it moving. Players remember stuff like this, ask Corbin Burnes about that in Milwaukee. Players take notice on this stuff, penny pinching guys coming off massive years, it's not the greatest look. Sox fans should be pissed, it's embarrassing for them to miss out on all the big free agents they were kicking the tires on and then to turn around and do this. Think Garret Crochet is thrilled to see this move pulled as he's looking for a long term deal? 

It's unneeded drama surrounding a team that has had their fair share of drama the past few years. Instead of just coughing up a half mill, now the Red Sox likely get a chance to sit Durran down and tell him to his face why he doesn't deserve that extra money. Sounds like a great practice if you're asking me. You'd think teams would do anything and everything to avoid this, especially with their better players. MLB Trade Rumors had Durran pegged at $4.9 million, so it's not like he was asking for a MAJOR raise, it was under the projections…by a lot! Sox should've seen that number and shook his hand immediately. There is 0 downside to giving Duran that extra bonus, that 500K isn't going to break the owners back or anything, it could only be positive. 

These hearings can get messy, and Boston is risking this getting nasty simply because they didn't want to pay him a little more. Embarrassing look for ownership with this move if you ask me, nasty work from the suits.