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Abraham On Toucher & Rich: Red Sox Won't Throw In The Towel On The Season

BOSTON (CBS) - Time is running out for the 2014 Boston Red Sox, and unless things turn around quickly the season is already nearing its end in early June.

The 28-35 defending World Series champions have people around the city talking about "buying" or "selling," and when is the right time to pull the plug. The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham says the organization will fight to the bitter end and not throw in the towel.

Abraham joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich show Tuesday morning to discuss that very topic.

"The Red Sox are an outfielder away if that outfielder is Mike Trout," Abraham said sarcastically to start the conversation. "They're running out an outfield that is not Major League quality on most nights at three spots."

Abraham says the outfield should start to look better when Shane Victorino returns from injury, but even then the problems run so deep on this team that one trade could not solve them all. General manager Ben Cherington also places a high value on his prospects.

"Given their history and how Ben Cherington has acted in the past, I don't know to what degree he's going to try and improve a team that's 10 games out of first place. The Red Sox have been very protective of their prospects, and I just couldn't see them sending a high end prospect to somebody in an attempt to get the second wild card."

Abraham added, "The Red Sox have made bold moves when they've thought they have a World Series contender, and I don't see how they would think they have a World Series contender at this point."

So if the Red Sox aren't shaping up to be buyers, that must mean they'll be sellers right? Not quite.

"I don't think they would ever get to that point [of selling] because they charge so much for tickets at Fenway Park, the expectations are so high and they have their own regional sports network. When you start trading veteran guys it's a sign that you've given up. I don't know that they'd do that. That's not something they've done in the past. Even at their worst, even in 2012 they never just got rid of everybody until the end of August, and that required an extraordinarily different kind of deal with the Dodgers."

If, and it's a big if, the Red Sox do end up selling, Abraham says they would be a "one stop shop" for potential contenders.

"They'd have everybody knocking at their door. Koji Uehara could go close for somebody. They have guys like A.J. Pierzynski on a one-year deal, John Lackey on a short term deal, Jake Peavy on a short term deal. If they really got crazy and decided they wanted to do big time stuff Jon Lester is somebody people would be looking at, but I don't know that they'd go that far."

Listen below the full interview, including an update on Clay Buchholz, the Stephen Drew situation and much more:

Abraham: Red Sox Won't Throw In The Towel On The Season

MORE RED SOX COVERAGE FROM CBS BOSTON

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