Red Sox Reportedly Eyeing Angels Shortstop Zach Neto Ahead of MLB Trade Deadline: Will Boston Actually Pull This Off?
The Boston Red Sox are officially in on Zach Neto. Whether they can pry him away from the Los Angeles Angels before the August 3 trade deadline is a completely different question.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported Thursday that the Red Sox view the 25-year-old Angels shortstop as a strong fit given their infield injury situation. Boston has been decimated at the position with Trevor Story out with a hernia, Isiah Kiner-Falefa on the shelf with a forearm injury, and top prospect Marcelo Mayer also dealing with a forearm issue.
Neto would fix all of it. He would also cost a fortune.
The Numbers Are Legitimate
Neto is hitting .238 with a .772 OPS, 19 home runs, 46 RBIs and 13 stolen bases through 100 games in 2026. The average is not eye-popping but the power and speed combination at a premium defensive position is exactly what makes him valuable. He ranks fifth in bWAR (13.4) among players who have played at least 50 percent of their games at shortstop since the start of the 2024 season.
Defensively he is elite. Range, arm strength, instincts. He plays the position the way you draw it up. Neto has become one of the most complete young shortstops in baseball, and he is under club control through 2029.
That last part is the biggest issue. Neto has three-plus more seasons of team control after this one. The Angels are not going to give that up for a package of prospects. It would have to be a package of prospects plus current major-league talent, which is a much heavier ask for Boston.
The Red Sox Have Something to Prove
Boston sits at 52-49 after a woeful 32-46 start. A 15-game winning streak this summer vaulted them from irrelevant back into the third Wild Card spot in the American League. That is exactly the kind of hot streak that convinces front offices to buy at the deadline instead of sell.
The Red Sox already tried to trade for Neto over the winter and failed. That is instructive. If the Angels would not deal him then, they are unlikely to deal him now unless Boston significantly upgrades the offer.
Craig Breslow has been the head of baseball operations in Boston for two full seasons now, and his front office has not landed a franchise-altering acquisition. Neto would be that acquisition. Boston needs to decide how many top prospects they are willing to move to get it done.
The Angels Are the Wild Card
Los Angeles sits at 41-62, worst record in the American League. Owner Arte Moreno is famously reluctant to be a seller at the deadline. Every year the Angels find themselves out of contention. Every year the team leans toward keeping their best players. Every year they get worse.
Neto is one of the few truly exciting young players on the Angels roster. Trading him would be a stark admission that this rebuild is real. Moreno has resisted that admission every time it has been available.
The counter-argument is that the return for Neto could reshape the entire farm system. Boston has real prospects to offer. Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel, and multiple other high-end names are on the table for the right deal. Los Angeles would come out of a Neto trade with a top-five farm system overnight.
That is the calculation the Angels have to make. Do they finally sell high on a controllable young star, or do they hold on and pretend contention is around the corner again?
History says they hold. Rosenthal is not writing this report for nothing, though. Something has changed inside the Angels front office, and Boston is ready to pounce.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
