At first glance, it’s easy to view Alex Verdugo as an important piece of the 2023 Red Sox. He’s still just 26, fills a spot in an unsettled outfield and has shown flashes of being an above-average major league player during his first three years in Boston.

But Chaim Bloom has a long to-do list this winter and has shown a desire to be creative with his moves in the past. That’s why the possibility of Verdugo being traded before Opening Day shouldn’t be ruled out.

Verdugo finished his up-and-down 2022 with a .280 average, 11 homers, 74 RBIs and a .732 OPS. He led the teams in games played (152), which is not something that should be discounted, and finished third behind Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers in batting average. On the surface, it was a good season for Verdugo. But the Red Sox expect more out of him.

Before Boston’s final game, manager Alex Cora was asked which Sox player needed to take the biggest step forward in 2023. Before the question was even finished, Cora offered Verdugo’s name. Despite Verdugo’s batting average and some other positives (like a career-high 39 doubles), Cora and other key Red Sox decision-makers clearly think there’s more in the tank for the former second-round pick who was the centerpiece of the Mookie Betts trade in 2020. In 2022, Verdugo’s defense and baserunning declined. Cora repeatedly said he believed Verdugo could be “a lot better” in the future.

“He hit for average, but he can be a lot better baserunning, defensively,” Cora said on Oct. 5. “He’s getting to that area in his career that’s, ‘Who is he gonna be?’ We talked about this with (Andrew Benintendi) a few years ago. You see the player he has become. (Benintendi) has become a better defender, a good hitter. I think Verdugo has the chance to hit for power, hit for average, but he can impact the game running the bases and playing defense.