I'd be happy with something like that, but isn't Seattle one of our direct competitors these days? They've been right there in the WC hunt the last few years, and while we always wanna play for the division, the AL East is such a dogfight that the Wild Card berth is significant. Seems like it could be a deterrent for major deals.
I don't think it's a "deterrent" if both sides are open to making a "baseball trade", and probably with the Sox technically losing on the "value side" in order to fill the more scarce resource (starting pitching).
Seattle is one of the few teams that has plenty of SPs (Miami and maaaaaybe Cleveland are the only others I can think of). They also have a pretty bad offense with very little around one absolute stud, and they just lost one of their best producing offensive players (Suarez) and traded away one with high upside that hasn't been consistent at the MLB level (Kelenic).
They already have two aces (Castillo and Kirby), they have two versions of Kutter Crawford (I'd argue they're a bit better than Crawford, but who knows because it's really tough to isolate out predictive data from Crawford the SP vs Crawford the relief pitcher) in Woo and Miller. They have Ray coming back this year as well. No idea how legit the Snell interest is, but that would also open up another spot if they signed him.
Duran could slot in for Keleic (LF), Verdugo for Hernandez (RF), which gives the two LHH outfielders around Rodriguez (RHH).
I could see something like Duran, Verdugo, Houck and one of Yorke (Wong was their 2b last year) or Bleis if they want the long term upside working for both teams. Again the Red Sox would have to (at least in my opinion) overpay in terms of value by adding a really good prospect, but I can certainly see the match for baseball reasons.
If one wants to get really crazy - say Seattle really does want to sign Snell and Snell really wants to go there...
The Sox could offer to take on Ray along with Gilbert. I know you suggested Ray a while back, and while there is very little part of me that likes the idea of paying Robbie Ray roughly $75m for 2.5 seasons (he's not expected back until June) but if the Sox are contemplating something like 1 yr and $12m or 2 yrs and $20m for Paxton, I'd RATHER double that payout for Ray AND Gilbert than simply signing Paxton and not having Gilbert.
That would bring down the value of the return going to Seattle by a large amount since Ray is seen as a negative asset (at least on BTV - and I agree with that assessment).
Bello, Gilbert, Imanaga, Crawford, 12 starts from Sale, who then goes on the IL and is replaced by Ray isn't a horrible rotation and is a heck of a lot better than we've had in half a decade.
Also makes 2025 Bello, Gilbert, Ray, Imanaga, Crawford which is pretty decent. But a lot is, of course, dependent on Ray's return from TJS.