With MLB teams already discussing in-season trades, should any player in the Red Sox organization be untouchable?

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski often says there’s no such thing as an untradeable player. All it takes is the right offer.

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He speaks from experience, having once traded for future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, only to trade him away eight days later. Dombrowski also made deals involving Miguel Cabrera, Randy Johnson, and Trevor Hoffman during his career.

The trade deadline is not until Aug. 3, but teams have already begun discussing deals. For clubs with obvious needs, there’s little to be gained by waiting.

So it’s not too early to test Dombrowski’s theory as it applies to the Red Sox. Should any player in the organization be untouchable as the team contemplates its future?

For now, the Sox are telling teams they want to add a righthanded hitter and believe they can make their way back into contention.

There’s little evidence to suggest that’s anything more than well-rehearsed spin. The Sox are 10-21 at home with losses in 13 of their last 18 games.

Their major league roster is loaded with borderline major leaguers, and lineups often resemble something better suited for a spring training road game. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Andruw Monasterio, and Nick Sogard have batted fifth this season.

Unless it’s Byron Buxton or Mike Trout, adding one righthanded hitter is not going to change much.

A better path to contention for the Sox would be to use their large pool of tradable talent to begin improving the roster for 2027 while maintaining a core group to build around.

Here’s a look at who should be the keepers:

Roman Anthony: Injuries have limited the outfielder to 101 of a possible 157 games since his call-up last season, raising questions about whether he can stay on the field enough to maximize his talent.

But that talent is considerable, and he is signed through 2033. Trading him wouldn’t make any sense.

Garrett Crochet: Even if healthy, Crochet would not be a trade candidate. The lefthander is signed through 2031 and is arguably the most important player on the roster.

But he’s not healthy, and his shoulder injury has grown increasingly worrisome given the setbacks. What was initially termed “inflammation” has led to a lat strain, and Crochet was shut down from throwing.

Crochet didn’t pitch well in spring training, and three of his six starts once the season started were shaky. The Red Sox are notorious for underplaying injuries, and it feels like there is more going on with Crochet than what has been said.

The last time he pitched was the last game Alex Cora managed. That’s how long ago it was.

Connelly Early and Payton Tolle: Along with Crochet, they’re the backbone of what the Red Sox envision their rotation to look like for years to come.

Yes, the Sox have proven they can develop starters. But Early (3.05 ERA in 16 major league starts) and Tolle (3.25/15 appearances) have proven they can succeed at the highest level.

Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela: What Early and Tolle are to the rotation, Abreu and Rafaela are to the outfield. They’re building blocks for the future.

In Abreu, the Sox have a productive two-way player who rarely needs a day off and has a low-maintenance personality. He turns 27 later this month.

The 25-year-old Rafaela is a younger version of the same model. Durable, valuable on both sides of the ball, and just wants to play. He’s also under team control through 2032.

Beyond those six players, back up the truck.

It’s highly unlikely the Red Sox would trade lefthander Ranger Suarez. But the starter’s not somebody you would refuse to discuss. The same is true for Willson Contreras. The first baseman’s value may never be higher than it is now.

Sonny Gray is signed through the end of the season and the righthander has pitched well. The timing is right to move him.

Aroldis Chapman will be the most coveted reliever on the market the second the Sox make him available. Garrett Whitlock will be in demand, too, assuming he pitches well once he returns from the injured list.

Jovani Morán, Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, and any other reliever should be on the table.

Kiner-Falefa’s infield versatility and 21 games of postseason experience should bring back a prospect.

Selling low on infielders Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer, or catcher Carlos Narváez, wouldn’t seem to make much sense. But you have to listen. Maybe you could unload outfielder/DH Masataka Yoshida and some of his onerous contract as part of a deal.

Jarren Duran’s recent hot streak has come at the right time. If the Sox truly believe Abreu, Anthony, and Rafaela are their outfield moving forward, trade Duran now.

One executive described the Sox as “one-stop shopping” if they decide to become sellers. Assuming the Sox still trust chief baseball officer Craig Breslowto make major trades, they should drive the market.

I suggested to former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom several years ago that he might benefit from having a veteran executive on his staff, somebody to counsel him about major moves and give him a big-picture sense of the landscape.

Essentially, someone with a different background who’s not always going to be a yes-man.

Bloom said he had considered that idea but had never found anyone he thought would fit the group he had assembled. To me, somebody who didn’t fit the group was exactly what he needed.

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The same is now true for Breslow.

The Yankees and Dodgers are among the teams that have hired advisors who once ran teams and others who were major league players or coaches. Those organizations prize experience and people with different perspectives.

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has former Cubs GM Jim Hendry, former Mets GM Omar Minaya, and former Giants GM Brian Sabean on his staff.

Andrew Friedman of the Dodgers has former Twins manager Rocco Baldelli in his group, along with respected former players Raul Ibanez and Nelson Cruz. The Dodgers also have a large group of professional scouts who follow other teams and gather intelligence.

The Red Sox would benefit from following that model. Somebody like former Rangers GM Jon Daniels, who now works for the Rays, would have been a good sounding board. Or James Click, who was unfairly fired by the Astros after they won the 2022 World Series. But he was hired by the Blue Jays.

Former Pirates GM Neal Huntington, a New Hampshire native, took a job with the Guardians.

Theo Epstein rejoined the Sox with an ownership stake in 2024, but he is not around the team on a daily basis. He’s a good resource for Breslow, but more are needed.

The best teams balance data with the input of people closest to the game on the ground. That was something the Sox did when they were consistently successful and abandoned

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

⋅ Counting the postseason, the Red Sox were 2-11 in the last 13 games Brayan Bello appeared in before he was demoted to Triple-A. He had a 6.39 ERA in those games.

Immaturity is his biggest problem, not mechanics.

Bello disrespectfully waved off Narváez during his first-inning meltdown against the Orioles on Thursday. Then he lectured reporters after the game, telling them not to ask him whether he should be a starter.

In short, Bello gets rattled easily, and it affects how he pitches. The six-year, $55 million extension Breslow signed him to before the 2024 season is not looking very good.

⋅ Chapman hasn’t pitched very often the last few weeks. But he watches plenty of baseball.

“I like what Milwaukee is doing,” he said. “[Starter Jacob] Misiorowski has good mechanics. He throws hard because he throws with his body, not just his arm. That’s how you stay healthy.”

Chapman then stood up in front of his locker and pantomimed a pitch.

“It comes from your legs,” he said.

Chapman is also a big fan of Braves reliever Robert Suarez, who allowed two runs in his first 27 appearances this season. He averages tick under 99 miles per hour with his fastball.

“He’s nasty,” Chapman said. “That’s it, nasty.”

⋅ Just spitballing here, but what would be the downside for the Red Sox or Orioles by trading Yoshida straight up for Tyler O’Neill?

Both are signed through 2027. Yoshida turns 33 in July and has roughly $26 million remaining on his contract. O’Neill turns 31 later this month and has $23 million left.

O’Neill had a career .813 OPS in 59 games at Fenway Park and played pretty well for the Sox in 2024. He has been terrible for the Orioles the last two seasons — .185 with a .618 OPS — and he’s often injured. But he would give the Sox at least some hope of righthanded power, and he’s a decent outfielder.

Yoshida has 1.118 OPS in 14 games at Camden Yards and badly needs a change of scenery. Once Anthony returns, his at-bats are going to dry up.

A trade beats the alternative of releasing them.

⋅ In Narváez, Contreras, Kiner-Falefa, Mickey Gasper, and Connor Wong, the Sox are carrying five players who have at least 26 games of major league experience as a catcher.

⋅ Chase Nixon, Trot’s son, has joined the High Point Rockers of the Atlantic League, hoping to catch on with a major league organization. The 24-year-old outfielder played for North Carolina State and Memphis.

Nixon is represented by Dan Tiant of Aventus Sports Management.

Massachusetts has produced a number of major league players in recent years. But there haven’t been any managers since Joe Morgan was running the local nine.

So it was refreshing to hear Craig Albernaz’s accent when the Orioles were at Fenway Park last week. It meant a lot to the Fall River-born, Somerset-raised 43-year-old to have his family and friends in the stands for the series.

“Watching games as a fan was awesome. It’s such a great ballpark, a legendary ballpark,” Albernaz said. “Sometimes we had seats with the obstructed view, which was fun in its own right.

“It’s been fun to hear everyone I grew up with and know very closely reach out and wish me luck.”

Like a lot of us, Albernaz has fond memories of his father buying grandstand seats and then sneaking down to the box seats during the game.

He said coming back to Fenway as a manager was “humbling” to even consider.

But he earned it. Albernaz was a backup catcher in the minors from 2006-14, spending all but one season with the Rays organization.

Tampa Bay hired him as a minor league hitting coach in 2016. That led to managing in the Rays system, then a four-year stint with the Giants as their bullpen coach.

Albernaz interviewed for a position on the Red Sox’s major league coaching staff before the 2024 season. But he withdrew his name from consideration to take a position on the Guardians’ staff when his good friend Stephen Vogt became manager.

The hiring in Cleveland was initially as field coordinator. But when DeMarlo Hale left to become the Blue Jays’ associate manager, Albernaz became the bench coach.

The Orioles moved quickly to hire him after last season.

Like much of the American League, Baltimore has had a choppy season. But the Orioles went into the weekend having won seven of 10.

Shohei Ohtani dropped his ERA to 0.74 with six shutout innings against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday. It’s the lowest ERA over the first 10 starts of a season since Jacob deGrom‘s 0.56 for the Mets in 2021. Before that, it was Juan Marichal (0.59) for the 1966 Giants. Ohtani threw both the fastest pitch of that game (a fastball at 100.4 m.p.h. to Nolan Arenado) and the slowest (a curveball at 68 m.p.h. curveball to Gabriel Moreno). He also reached base five times in that game to raise his on-base percentage to .420 … Lance Dobbins, the father of Cardinals righthander Hunter Dobbins, took a social-media shot at the Red Sox on Monday. After his son allowed one run over 3⅔ innings of relief against the Cubs, Dobbins wrote on X, “One organization says, ‘No sinkers because it’s not what we want you to do.’ But the new org that traded for him says, “98 mph sinkers, absolutely!!! You go be you, and we trust you!’” Dobbins threw 10 sinkers that averaged 96.6 m.p.h. against the Cubs. He threw only 13 sinkers over 61 innings last season for the Red Sox. The Dobbins family inadvertently made news a year ago when Hunter said he would rather retire than play for the Yankees because the team drafted his father twice and traded him to the Diamondbacks. The story didn’t check out as Lance Dobbins only played independent ball for two seasons and was never drafted by any team … Kyle Harrison faced the Giants for the first time since he was traded to the Red Sox (and subsequently to the Brewers) nearly a year ago. The lefthander allowed one run over 5⅔ innings and struck out 12 in an 8-3 victory Tuesday. Harrison struck out Rafael Devers, who he was traded for, three times and had 19 swing-and-misses in all. Was he seeking revenge? “I don’t know — I guess, right?” he told reporters. “No, just another game.” Harrison is 7-1 with a 1.57 ERA in 11 starts … Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies hit two home runs and stole home against the Giants on May 29 at Coors Field. He was the first player to do that since Mitch Moreland on Oct. 1, 2010, against the Angels when he was a rookie with the Rangers. Moreland stole only eight more bases over the remaining 11 games of his career, which included three-plus seasons with the Red Sox (2017-20) … Respected draft evaluator Jim Callis of MLB.com has Bishop Feehan lefty Brody Bumila going 21st to the Padres, which would be a pick after the Red Sox on July 11. Callis has the Sox taking Bo Lowrance, a high school third baseman from South Carolina … Happy 60th birthday to Heathcliff Slocumb, an important figure in Red Sox history thanks to a Brinks Robbery of a trade made by Dan Duquette in 1997. Slocum was an erratic closer for the Sox before he was sent to the Mariners at the trade deadline for righthander Derek Lowe and catcher Jason Varitek. Lowe went on to pitch eight seasons for the Sox, picking up 85 saves from 1998-2001 before becoming a reliable starter. He had a 3.05 ERA in 17 postseason games and dominated the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. Varitek played 15 seasons and was a central figure for two World Series winners. His 1,546 games are 10th in team history. He served as team captain from 1997-2011 and held various roles from 2012-26, including time on the major league coaching staff, before he was fired in April. As for Slocumb, he retired after the 2000 season with 98 career saves and has stayed out of the public eye since.

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