Red Sox, Jarren Duran at impasse on 2025 salary with arbitration possible

After a breakout 2024 season, the Red Sox view Jarren Duran as one of their cornerstones of the future. That doesn’t mean the sides currently see eye-to-eye on how the outfielder should be compensated in 2025.

Jarren Duran and the Red Sox couldn't come to terms on a deal by Thursday's deadline. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)AP

The Red Sox and Duran failed to agree to terms on a 2025 contract before Thursday’s deadline to exchange figures and, barring late progress, will head to an arbitration hearing in late January or early February in order to determine his salary for this upcoming season. The sides formally exchanged numbers, with Duran asking for $4 million and the Red Sox offering $3.5 million. If no agreement is reached before a hearing, a three-person panel will hear from both sides before choosing one of their proposals (not a compromise).

The Sox, like most other teams, claim they employ a “file-and-trial” strategy in which they tell players if there’s no agreement before the exchange deadline, negotiations are over and they’ll head to a hearing. But there’s nothing stopping the sides from continuing to negotiate in hopes of finding common ground before that point. This year’s arbitration hearings are set to be held from January 27 to February 14 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Because the player is present for the hearing and the team has to argue why he’s not worth as much as he and his representatives think he is, it’s a process that can get a bit ugly. Boston last went to a hearing in 2019 with Eduardo Rodriguez. The year before that, they went to arbitration with Mookie Betts.

Duran, 28, is arbitration-eligible for the first time as a Super Two player who has accumulated enough service time to get four years in the arbitration system. Barring a longer contract extension — a possibility the Red Sox have never explored with him, according to sources — he’ll be eligible for free agency after 2028. MLBTradeRumors projected that Duran, who finished fifth in all of baseball in bWAR (8.7) last season, to earn $4.9 million in his first year of arbitration. He will earn less than that after making $760,000 in 2024, when he was a pre-arbitration player.

The Red Sox got deals done early Thursday with their other three arbitration-eligible players, who are all members of the starting rotation. Tanner Houck ($3.95 million), Garrett Crochet ($3.8 million) and Kutter Crawford ($2.75 million) all signed one-year deals. In total, those three commitments will be worth $10.5 million in 2025.