ESPN's Buster Olney tweets that the Red Sox are aggressively pursuing the Cubs' Ryan Dempster in a bid to strengthen their rotation.
Dempster can be a free agent at the end of the season. He's working on a 33-inning scoreless streak and is 5-3 with a 1.86 ERA in 92 innings for the season. The Cubs are thought to want young pitching and perhaps a third-base prospect in return.
Young Red Sox arms the Cubs are rumored to be looking at include current major league starter Felix Doubront, who won nine games in the first half of the season.
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The Red Sox have maybe the game's best third-base prospect in 19-year-old Xander Bogaerts. Hes currently a shortstop, but he is outgrowing the position and most project him to shift to third or the outfield. Its doubtful theyd part with him for a rental, though. They do have 21-year-old Garin Cecchini they can make available. Hes hitting .309.389.441 in low-A ball.Young pitchers the Red Sox could deal include right-handers Anthony Ranaudo, Stolmy Pimentel and Alex Wilson and left-handers Henry Owens and Drake Britton.A less likely possibility is that they could send left-hander Felix Doubront to Chicago. Doubront has nine wins for Boston this year, but hes struggled some lately. With Matt Garza and Paul Maholm also potentially on the block, the Cubs would certainly appreciate some young pitching capable of stepping right into the rotation.