3 more trades Chaim Bloom could easily pull off with Red Sox in 2026 and beyond

JoJo Romero would give the Red Sox the best high-leverage lefty duo in baseball

If the Red Sox want to create another area of strength on their roster heading into the 2026 season, acquiring a reliever like JoJo Romero would surely do that.

The Red Sox's closer, Aroldis Chapman, was the best left-handed reliever in all of baseball last year, and there's a strong arguement that Romero was a top three high-leverage reliever in the sport as well. In 65 appearances in 2025, Romero posted a 2.07 ERA, and pair that with Chapman's 1.17 ERA in 67 games, that would be an elite duo at the back of games.

In today's game, left-handed hitters are big parts of the best offenses in the game, and when teams get late into games, having multiple southpaws they can go to is important for neutralizing those big thumpers. In the American East alone, the Red Sox have to deal with Gunnar Henderson, Trent Grisham, Ben Rice, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Daulton Varsho, Jackson Holliday, and Samuel Basallo, and we all know about thumpers like Yordan Alvarez, Corey Seager, Josh Naylor, and Kerry Carpenter on other contenders.

With Chapman operating as Boston's closer, having a guy like Romero that they can deploy in the sixth, seventh, or eighth innings in big spots gives manager Alex Cora a ton of flexibility and even allows them to potentially rest Chapman when needed. Having elite traits as a team really helps when October comes around, and having the best left-handed relievers in the game would be a great step in that direction.

Again, there are a ton of teams who could use Romero, much like Donovan, so I would not "bet" on Boston being the team to get him. But would I be surprised? Again, no. The fit is there. Boston's desire is less clear here than it is with Donovan, but it is not hard to connect the dots. Also, another layer here, you could make the argument that the American League team that relies on left-handed hitters the most is Boston, so acquiring Romero before a different American League contender does could prevent them from having to face Romero in big spots as well.