(Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ-AM) -- The Red Sox are reportedly looking to trim payroll to stay under the highest luxury tax threshold for 2019 and, as a result, they're listening to trade offers for Rick Porcello, Xander Bogaerts, and Jackie Bradley Junior. The goal? To clear space for bullpen help.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told NESN his ears are always open.
"You listen to any idea that people possibly have," Dombrowski said. "I always find that they're a lot of fun, and interesting, because people throw all different types of ideas at you. I've always said that you never have an untradable player no matter how good they are, but I think you're always open minded. We know we're not going to sign all of our players in the long-term. But our number-one goal is to try and win a world championship this coming year. So, again, you listen to anything, people throw ideas out, but we're not actively shopping our players."
Manager Alex Cora said he's tuning out the noise.
"This is the first time I've been in this situation," Cora said. "Whatever. You just put the mute on a few of you guys, don't follow them, stay away from it. It's part of the business. Everybody knows that, in today's world, people are going to talk, and it's going to be out there. I haven't talked to any of them, we're just preparing for next year. When I talk to them, it's about what we're trying to accomplish next year."
The Sox have roughly $235 million committed to players for 2019, and Dombrowski thinks the team will exceed $246 million, which yields the harshest penalties.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports