Red Sox’ Jarren Duran speaks on trade rumors, Rafael Devers’s exit in candid interview
“Honestly, the way I think about it is I have absolutely no say and no control, so why would I even give it two thoughts?”
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Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran self-admittedly doesn’t love taking interviews or speaking to the media.
However, he appeared on a recent episode of the “Section 10 Podcast” and spoke at length about a variety of subjects related to the Red Sox, which sits at 40-43 following Friday’s loss to the Blue Jays.
At the beginning of the interview, the 28-year-old Duran was asked about being a de facto leader on a young Red Sox club that’s lost five straight games after being swept by the Los Angeles Angels. He had a fiery response, talking about how some fans view himself and other players as being carefree during and after losses.
“I want to do everything in my power to help the team win and help anybody in any way I can. I always play the game as hard as I can and I want to win,” Duran said. “It may not [expletive] seem like it sometimes – maybe I’m 0-for-4 with three [strikeouts], that’s part of baseball – but I want to win. …. I hate to [expletive] lose. I hate to lose more than I like to win. Nobody hates [expletive] losing more than me and the guys on the team.”
Boston fields one of the youngest teams in MLB this season. On the active roster, only eight players are 30 years old or older. Duran’s playing style has made him be viewed as one of the Red Sox’ few leaders in the clubhouse during yet another inconsistent season on the field.
Entering Friday, Boston led the league in errors with 69. Coming off a 2024 season in which the Red Sox committed 115 errors (second-most in MLB behind the Miami Marlins with 117), this stat has naturally raised questions about player focus.
“It just pisses me off sometimes when people think that we don’t [expletive] care. Because we [expletive] care,” Duran said. “When people tell us that we don’t care, it’s like, what are we supposed to do, walk around and mope around because we [expletive] lost? No, we have a [expletive] half a season [expletive] to play. If you guys want us to [expletive] mope around, we’ll [expletive] mope around.
“When people are like, ‘Oh, it seems like they don’t care.’ Well, no [expletive], because we got 80 more [expletive] games to play. I gotta forget about that game and move onto the next one.”
Boston’s persistent fielding issues have been overshadowed of late by the blockbuster Rafael Devers trade, which took place on June 15. The Red Sox dealt their best hitter at the time in Devers to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for pitcher Jordan Hicks and three prospects the same day Boston swept the New York Yankees and regained a record above .500.
Duran had an interesting quote about his reaction to the Devers trade the day after. He said he was shocked to learn the news, but he took a nap on the flight out west afterward.
On the podcast, Duran cleared the air on his feelings toward Devers, explaining that he still loves his ex-teammate.
“It was good,” Duran said of their relationship. “I loved Raffy. I still love him. It was always funny to see him smiling and laughing, acting like a kid. Everybody sees him smiling and laughing and sitting on his cooler in the dugout.”
Duran added that Boston isn’t harping on Devers’s exit. He doubled down on not “moping” about the situation and moving forward as a team with playoff aspirations.
“I feel like people wanted us to dwell on it. But it’s like, what is that gonna do? It’s not gonna bring him back,” Duran said. “People were like, ‘Oh, maybe they didn’t like Raffy or they didn’t care,’ or stuff like that. I’m like, ‘No!’ What’s crying about it gonna do? It’s not gonna bring him back. He’s gone. He’s on the Giants now, he’s doing his thing over there, so we have to do our thing over here.”
“To the fans, if you’re mad about it, you guys can be mad about it because you don’t have to go and perform on the field the next day,” he continued. “We don’t have that luxury to be upset about it because I’ve gotta go out and win a game the next day, with or without Raffy. … It’s obviously made us (the current roster) closer because it’s like, alright, they think we’re gonna suck without Raffy? Well, we have to go prove them wrong now.”
With Devers being traded and blindsiding fans, it appears that no players are off limits. It’s no secret the Red Sox could be looking to move Duran ahead of this year’s trade deadline, given the club’s outfield logjam and the player being under team control until 2028. There are plenty of teams who could use an outfielder down the stretch, too.
Duran gave his thoughts on being mentioned in trade rumors with the July 31 deadline approaching.
“Honestly, the way I think about it is I have absolutely no say and no control, so why would I even give it two thoughts?” he said. “That’s the way I think about it. … At the end of the day, I have absolutely no control, so the more I feed that into my own brain, the more it’s gonna tear me up. So I just don’t really think about it. If it happens, it happens, but at the end of the day, I have no control.”
Regardless of whether Duran will be on the team come the end of the season, he believes in Boston as currently constructed. He bluntly offered his thoughts to fans who don’t think the Red Sox are a playoff team.
“Don’t come crawling to us when we make the playoffs,” Duran said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
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