As an alternative to the Yelich+Woodruff/Burnes ideas, here's an equally bold scenario:
Trade 1
SEA gets Trevor Story, Connor Seabold and Jarren Duran
BOS gets Marco Gonzales, Evan White, Dylan Moore, Diego Castillo and Jarred Kelenic
Why it could happen: Seattle tried hard for Story last year but couldn't sell him on a switch to 3B. Now, after their GM declared an intention to sign a SS and convert him to 2B, Story at 5/$115 is more affordable to them than luring any of XB/TT/CC/DS to make that switch. They get rid of $11.5M in deadweight AAV in Gonzales/White. They give up Moore, who is redundant with Story's arrival, and Kelenic, a stalled prospect who with the emergence of Julio Rodriguez has been pushed to a corner, where they have a surplus (Lewis, Trammell, Winker, Haggerty, Marlowe -- plus Duran in this trade).
For Boston, It gives us a young outfielder with superstar upside (Kelenic), clears out 2B for a Bogaerts slide in 2025 and some great infield depth to cover the position in the meantime (Arroyo, Moore). But in the short-term, the 2B position will soon be occupied...
Trade 2
LAA gets Chris Sale, Marco Gonzales (via SEA), Bobby Dalbec, Matthew Lugo, Bryan Mata, David Hamilton and Ceddanne Rafaela
BOS gets Shohei Ohtani, Anthony Rendon, Aaron Loup, Jose Suarez and ~$70M (of Rendon's 4/$152 contract)
Why it could happen: This is an 11-player deal, which IIRC has happened maybe once in the last 10 years. But Ohtani is quite likely to be moved this offseason and there's no modern precedent for what that trade looks like. This proposal gets LAA ownership out of much of the Rendon deal while still getting them a Cy Young candidate and a solid prospect package in return — pretty decent for a team with one of the worst farm systems in MLB. They'd get Sale, a 1B/DH platoon partner with upside to pair with Walsh, four prospects (who would become the 3rd, 7th, 8th and 17th best in their system, per Fangraphs), two years of a relatively cheap innings eater in Gonzales and a ton of salary relief. It's even possible they get a vintage year out of Sale and get to move him for something valuable again next year.
For this to make sense for Boston, both parties would have to like the idea of signing Ohtani to a massive extension. Rendon would also need to want out of Anaheim so badly that he'd consider playing 2B again — which is probably the most speculative part of this idea. But a switch to 2B makes some sense, because he (too) has had issues with his throwing arm and other injuries. I'm bullish on a rebound from him at the plate, where I don't think he's done as one of the game's great hitters for contact and power.
On the pitching side, Ohtani allows us to move to a 6-man rotation, which helps ease in Whitlock, Bello and Hill (and protect Eovaldi, if he resigns). That'll be necessary to keep all those arms fresh for an October run.
Extensions: Ohtani (?), Bogaerts (6/$160), Devers (9/$270)
Signings: Eovaldi (2/$30), Hill (1/$6), Rafael Montero (3/$24).
That team looks like this:
1. Ohtani - DH
2. Bogaerts - SS
3. Devers - 3B
4. Rendon - 2B
5. Casas - 1B
6. Hernández - CF
7. Verdugo - LF
8. Kelenic - RF
9. McGuire - C
A pretty-left handed lineup, but our bench options under contract before other moves are Moore (R), Wong (R), Arroyo (R), Refsnyder (R), Hosmer (L) and Cordero (L) [Minors 40-man depth: Valdez (L), Abreu (L), White (R), R. Hernandez (R), C. Hamilton (R), Downs (R), Paulino (L)]
SP1 - Ohtani
SP2 - Eovaldi
SP3 - Whitlock
SP4 - Pivetta (edit)
SP5 - Hill
SP6 - Bello
SP7/LR - Suarez
Bullpen: Montero, Schreiber, Houck, Castillo, Barnes, Loup, Brasier, Taylor, Kelly [Minors 40-man depth: Winckowski, Crawford, Ort, Altavilla, Murphy, Walter, McGee, Ward, Reed, German, Gonzalez]
That team looks to cost around $215-225 million including arb estimates and buyouts — though that's admittedly hard to estimate. I don't know what Bogaerts signs for and a lot of money would change hands in those deals. I'm assuming LAA chips in about one-third of the Rendon contract in addition to taking Sale, and also have us assuming Loup's $8.5M, but we could offer to take Tepera's 1/$7M too if helps.
To summarize: Using some of our prospect depth to facilitate a complicated swap of Sale and Story for Ohtani, Rendon and Kelenic would allow us to capitalize on a bunch of 40-man eligible prospects we'd likely otherwise lose in the Rule 5 draft, get a plus-defensive right fielder with star upside, give us insurance against Devers leaving, open up 2B a little sooner as an option for Bogaerts when Mayer arrives, and most importantly, bring us Ohtani.
