Red Sox’ approach to trade deadline could go any number of ways, and involve any number of positions

As the trade deadline approaches, there are myriad ways the Red Sox could improve their roster now that they have fought back into contention.

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They could obtain a shortstop and/or a second baseman to solidify positions that have been unsettled all season. Trevor Story is expected to return sometime in August from surgery to correct a sports hernia, but that will be after at least two months away.

Zack Neto (Angels) or Jeremy Peña (Astros) would be high-impact upgrades. The Sox believe 20-year-old Franklin Arias is their shortstop of the future, but he could be included in a trade of that magnitude.

Or chief baseball officer Craig Breslow could look for a left fielder, another spot where the Sox have received little offensive production.

Jarren Duran’s .234 batting average on balls in play suggests he’s overdue for a hot streak. He also has improved significantly on defense, even to a point of finally throwing to the right bases. His speed adds a significant dimension to the offense, too.

Obtaining a catcher who is an offensive threat would require a major trade, which can be difficult to engineer at the deadline compared to the offseason.

Trading for Hunter Goodman (Rockies) or Shea Langeliers (Athletics) almost certainly means losing somebody like Connelly Early or fellow lefthander Payton Tolle, or Arias, as part of a package of players.

Ryan Jeffers (Twins) will be a free agent after the season and would come at a much lower price. The Twins are within striking distance of a wild card but still in rebuilding mode, and could want to trade Jeffers rather than lose him to free agency.

Or it could be as easy as this: Trade for a designated hitter. Righthanded, lefthanded, it doesn’t matter. Just find a hitter who would be a legitimate threat when he comes to the plate.

Going into the weekend, Red Sox DHs had hit .237 with a .674 OPS and only nine home runs, four in the last two months.

Masataka Yoshida, who gets most of the at-bats against righthanders, had a modest .692 OPS in 47 starts. Roman Anthony (on the injured list) and Mickey Gasper (in Triple-A) combined for 26 starts.

Utility infielder Andruw Monasterio is the fourth-most-used DH, and he’d actually been pretty good with six extra-base hits and six RBIs in 10 games.

With the Blue Jays on the fringes of contention, George Springer would be an appealing rental bat for the Red Sox. Plus he has the added value that comes with 83 games of postseason experience. The former UConn Husky was a career .324/.403/.541 hitter at Fenway Park through 48 games.

The Giants have infielder Casey Schmitt and left fielder Heliot Ramos as possibilities for a right-handed bat.

Ty France (Padres) has mashed lefties this season and is an excellent defensive first baseman, which would allow Willson Contreras some DH days.

Corner infielder Curtis Mead (Nationals) has hit lefties well and offers some speed. The 25-year-old has already been traded three times in his career. Presumably, Washington president of baseball operations Paul Toboni could swing a deal with Breslow, his former boss.

Spencer Steer (Reds) offers defensive versatility and would be under team control through 2028. Cincinnati has signaled it’s ready to deal.

Luis Robert Jr. (Mets) is a change-of-scenery candidate who is coming up on free agency, and fellow outfielder Lane Thomas (Royals) isn’t flashy but has hit lefties well throughout his career. Oddly, Fenway is the only current major park where Thomas has yet to play a game.

With few avowed sellers, the deadline could be more flash than substance. But there are several directions the Sox could take to improve their lineup.

When he managed Triple-A Worcester, Chad Tracy often had to deal with some anxious players around the trade deadline.

“You feel like, ‘How many of my guys am I about to lose?’ ” Tracy said. “When you’re sitting in Worcester, and you feel like the big league club might add, that puts minor league players on alert.”

In 2024, the Sox traded first baseman Niko Kavadas, outfielder Matthew Lugo, and righthander Ryan Zeferjahn to the Angels for reliever Luis Garcia.

“That was about 40 minutes before a game,” Tracy said. “Stuff like that happens all the time … Once they’re at Triple-A and they’ve been around for a while, you’re pretty well aware of how the game works.”

Now as the major league manager, Tracy is dealing with a different dynamic. At the highest level, players often feel their success on the field should be rewarded by the front office with additions at the deadline. Those expectations can be tricky for a manager to handle.

“I’m going to answer that as honestly as possible: I think our guys haven’t even spoken about it,” he said. “I think they know they’re a good team. I think they know we’re playing much better baseball, and I really think their focus right now is on let’s go out and win again today.”

Tracy has spoken to Breslow about what he feels the team needs. But his job is to manage the 26 players he has on a given day.

“I think players in general believe our group is right now,” Tracy said. “We’re going to go out there with the group we have in front of us. Maybe more of that will come up [at the deadline]. Maybe this will be one of those years where it goes down to the wire, and people wait as long as possible because they want to see what it looks like.”

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

▪ Martin Shelar went to bed the night of July 11 believing he would be playing for Mississippi State next season. By the end of the next day, he was a member of the Red Sox.

The 19-year-old righthanded-hitting outfielder from Georgia wasn’t selected in the first eight rounds of the draft despite being ranked among the top 50 prospects by Baseball America.

“It was in my mind that I was going to college, but pro ball was an option if a team came with an offer I couldn’t turn down,” Shelar said Wednesday when he was at Fenway Park with four other draft signees.

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Then the Sox called and offered $1.5 million, and that was enough.

“My number was different depending on the team,” Shelar said. “Boston has incredible player development, incredible people, and a great fan atmosphere. That was where I wanted to be.

“The draft is so messy. You go through all these swings of emotion when they come at you with an offer. It’s not just, ‘Yes,’ right off the bat. It’s like, ‘Holy moly, I need a moment to think about this.’ ”

Sox amateur scouting director Jake Bruml said Shelar was high on the team’s priority list after the first day. The Sox had bonus money to spend after making below-slot deals for first-round pick Jake Shaffner and second-round choice Owen Hull.

“We wanted to be smart about how we allocated it and were checking in with a bunch of high school prospects,” Bruml said. “Martin was one of them. It was a very pleasant surprise when we connected the next morning to hear there could be a potential fit.”

Shelar grew up a Braves fan and modeled his game after Ronald Acuña Jr. His favorite Red Sox player might surprise you.

“Ted Williams,” he said. “He’s the best hitting mind I’ve heard talk. I read his book [“The Science of Hitting”], and it completely changed the way I viewed baseball.”

The kid likes The Kid? That’s a player Sox fans can dream on.

Shelar is working out in Fort Myers, and the plan is for him to join Single-A Salem before the end of the season.

As he stood at Fenway, Shelar looked at the Green Monster and smiled.

“This park will be great for me,” he said.

▪ Dennis Eckersley was at Fenway, stopping over on his way to Cooperstown for the induction events this weekend. The Hall of Famer was happy to see Aroldis Chapman catch him on the all-time saves list with No. 390.

“I thought this was coming for a long time,” Eckersley said. “What I’m impressed with more than anything is that he did it in big-market cities. The Yankees, that says something. The Cubs. It’s hard to do it in a big spotlight … I can appreciate that.”

Eckersley is impressed with Chapman’s work ethic, too.

“He’s a monster. But it’s hard to throw strikes when you throw that hard,” Eckersley said. “He uncoils. He has a lot going on. You have to want to do it, and he’s not afraid.”

Eckersley said the older he gets, the more fun he has at induction weekend because he better appreciates his place in the game.

“I still get uptight a little bit because I’m not that cool,” he said. “I mean, there’s a lot of egos in there. There just is … I still can’t believe I’m in there.”

Eckersley said Billy Wagner deserved to get in last year, and he’s curious to see how other closers like Chapman, Kenley Jansen, and Craig Kimbrel fare once they get on the writers ballot.

▪ Anthony Seigler grew up in Georgia but was born in Fort Defiance, Ariz., a town in the Navajo Nation. Seigler and Jacoby Ellsbury are believed to be the only Navajo players in major league history.

A recent Globe story mentioned Seigler pitched with both arms in high school. Several readers e-mailed to say Red Sox Hall of Famer Billy Goodman also had that unusual skill.

Goodman pitched in two games in 1964 as a 38-year-old player-manager for Single-A Durham and threw righthanded. He pitched in high school and threw lefthanded on occasion.

▪ Sarah Langs of MLB.com unearthed this great nugget: Tracy’s 15-game win streak was the longest for a manager who got the job during the season since 22-year-old player-manager Bob Allen of the 1890 Phillies.

Allen was one of four managers the Phillies had that year, and had a 16-game win streak during his 35 games in charge. Allen didn’t manage in the major leagues again until 1900, when he was 62-77 with the Reds.

Allen’s playing career included a stint with Boston’s National League entry in 1897. That franchise eventually became known as the Braves.

Jeff Kent said last week that he’ll have his entire family together when he is inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday. That’s something unusual for him when it comes to baseball.

“This is going to be the first baseball function that I believe I’ve had my entire family together for,” he said. “I’ve just done a good job of separating my personal life and my business life, business being baseball. And my personal life rarely intertwines with baseball.

“My personal life — extended family, my friends, church friends — they know I’m a baseball player. They watched me on TV. They may go to a game or two. But none of them have ever been intimately involved in baseball functions, and this is the biggest baseball function. So everybody’s coming to that. I’ll probably shed a tear or two.”

Kent’s son, Kaeden, is a 22-year-old Yankees prospect. He’s on the injured list with High-A Hudson Valley and will be able to attend. Hudson Valley is a three-hour drive from Cooperstown.

Kent, 58, retired after the 2008 season and topped out at 46.5 percent on the BBWAA ballot before he was elected by the Contemporary Era oversight committee last winter.

After saying for years that his life wouldn’t change if he made the Hall, Kent admits that was wrong.

“It’s a bigger emotional deal than I ever thought it was going to be. Absolutely. I still tear up talking about it,” he said. “I’ve tried to figure out why. Is it because of the game? Is it because I finally got in? Is it because I wasn’t there and now I’m in?”

Kent said the honor upended his life.

“I don’t do this stuff. I’m a boring guy. I chase grandkids and chase cows and ride motorcycles,” he said. “Now I’ve got to do baseball [events] three or four times a year and give speeches and sign my ugly autograph and thank people. Every time I’m turning around, I’m thanking people. Don’t get me wrong, that’s all awesome.”

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has played 51 games at Rogers Centre this season and gone 218 plate appearances without hitting a home run. The Blue Jays first baseman’s slugging percentage is .404 on the road and .303 at home. Guerrero averaged 17.4 homers at home from 2021-25 … Not only is Rafael Devers playing first base regularly for the Giants, he’s actually pretty good at it. Devers went into the weekend with four defensive runs saved, tied for fourth among major league first basemen. He has seven errors but only two since May 23. Devers has been putting in consistent work with Giants infield instructor Ron Washington, one of the best in the business. The former Red Sox third baseman is also is on pace for 33 homers and 84 RBIs … West Roxbury’s Packy Naughton retired last week, ending nine seasons in the professional ranks. The 30-year-old lefthander endured three rounds of elbow surgery and had not appeared in a major league game since 2023. “My body has made the decision for me,” Naughton wrote on Instagram. “My elbow just can’t do it anymore. I gave this game everything I had, and then some.” Naughton played at Boston Latin and Virginia Tech before being drafted by the Reds in 2017. He made his major league debut with the Angels in 2021 and appeared in 30 games for the Cardinals from 2022-23. “Learning what it truly takes to compete at the highest level, navigating the ups and downs of the big leagues, and eventually running onto the field as part of an Opening Day roster are memories I’ll carry with me forever,” he said. Naughton will finish out this season coaching minor leaguers at the Cardinals’ facility in Jupiter, Fla., to get a feel for that as a career option … Karl Ravech was the voice of baseball for 33 years at ESPN, calling the Little League World Series, the College World Series, and MLB games during his tenure. The 61-year-old Needham native was laid off last week in the company’s latest round of cutbacks. Here’s hoping Ravech is back at a ballpark soon … Happy birthday to Jody Reed, who is 64. The middle infielder played 715 games for the Red Sox from 1987-92, part of an 11-year career in the majors. Reed was drafted three times from 1982-83 before he finally signed with the Sox in ′84. Reed made his debut in 1987 and averaged 141 games from 1988-92. Most were at second base, although Reed also started 201 games at shortstop for the Sox. He flourished under manager Joe Morgan in particular. Reed had 129 doubles from 1989-91. Only teammate Wade Boggs, with 137, had more. Reed was taken by the Rockies in the 1992 expansion draft and traded to the Dodgers. He also played for the Brewers, Padres, and Tigers before retiring after the 1997 season. Reed coached from 2007-24 with several major league organizations.

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