Boston Red Sox

With baseball's trade deadline fast approaching, rumors are swirling about potential deals, as they are every year in Boston.

The Red Sox Sox currently sit 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay for the wild card spot and 7.5 behind the Yankees in the AL East.

The gap is by no means insurmountable, and the Sox would sure benefit from a big bat or depth at, well, virtually every spot on the roster.

With only a mere four days away from the July 31st Major League Baseball trade deadline, not only will we see many trade rumors flying around, but we will start to see actual trades being made.

One team that will most certainly make a move, and is in no way a stranger to this time of year, is the Boston Red Sox.

It's just past the Major League Baseball All-Star break. Here's a roundtable featuring five columnists that are fans of each team in the American League East division.

The writers are Stephen Meyer (New York Yankees), Jonathan Slotter (Tampa Bay Rays), Amanda Bruno (Boston Red Sox), Jeff Wahl (Toronto Blue Jays), and Zachary Ball (Baltimore Orioles).

*Note that the stats are through two weeks ago.

1. Who has been the best player in the AL East?

SM: Robinson Cano.

Fresh off sending Conor Jackson to the Oakland Athletics and Dan Haren to the Los Angeles Angels, the Arizona Diamondbacks are shopping virtually every piece on their Major League roster, including catcher Chris Snyder, who has been on the Boston Red Sox' radar for some time, according to MLB.com's Steve Gilbert and MLBTradeRumors' Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Snyder joins the Colorado Rockies' Chris Iannetta, the Toronto Blue Jays' John Buck, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Russell Martin, and the New York Mets' Rod Barajas as a target of Boston's catching-hungry front office.

The Boston Red Sox tendered a trade offer to the New York Mets that would have sent Boston reliever Ramon Ramirez to the Big Apple in exchange for veteran catcher Rod Barajas. The deal, however, was at least temporarily tabled when Barajas landed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique, according to FOX's Ken Rosenthal and WEEI's Alex Speier.

While the deal may not be entirely dead, the Red Sox aren't likely to pursue another injured catcher with Jason Varitek nursing a broken foot and Victor Martinez having just returned from the disabled list.

Amid intensifying trade negotiations for Florida Marlin Jorge Cantu, the Texas Rangers have reportedly lost interest in Boston third baseman Mike Lowell, according to Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.

Texas' fluctuating interest in Boston's oft-injured backup third baseman has been well documented, and this writer most recently covered it in another article primarily dealing with Detroit's reported interest in Lowell.

Today, the Major League Baseball hot stove got even hotter as the Arizona Diamondbacks dealt Dan Haren to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for Joe Saunders and a couple of minor leaguers.  Certainly an unexpected deal.

Due to the financial disarray created by the McCourt divorce, Russell Martin may be growing too expensive for the Los Angeles Dodgers to retain beyond this season, and the Boston Red Sox could try to "make a run" at the All-Star catcher, according to NESN analyst Peter Gammons.

While the Dodgers have indicated they are willing to spend at this year's trade deadline, their sincerity and ability must be questioned due to the financial gridlock caused by ownership's protracted divorce proceedings.

The Detroit Tigers are looking to acquire Boston backup third baseman Mike Lowell to temporarily replace the injured Brandon Inge, according to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.

Inge had been hitting .263 with a .755 OPS and was wielding a decent glove before landing on the disabled list for six weeks with a broken hand.

While Lowell is still owed a little less than $5 million this year and has spent most of the season languishing on the DL, he represents one of the most affordable short-term fixes at the hot corner currently on the market.

Even as former Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow was fanning his third batter in two innings of work against his former team this week, the Boston front office was kicking the tires on bringing the Oakland Athletics reliever back to Beantown.

Breslow last pitched for the Red Sox during the injury-plagued 2006 campaign.

That year, Breslow posted a 3.75 ERA over 12 innings of work. But two years later, he was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Indians.