FORT MYERS, Fla. — Since 2000, 111 trades have occurred between March 25 and April 5, according to Baseball-Reference. Almost all of them have been minor in nature.

They typically involve swaps of players who are out of options for ones to be named later. Trades made this time of year are almost always about filling in the back end of your major-league roster or acquiring necessary depth, as was the case when the Red Sox acquired catcher Sandy Leon from the Nationals last spring.

That’s why, despite the trade chatter surrounding Boston this past week, it remains unlikely the Red Sox will make any substantive trade before the start of the season.

This makes sense. Teams don’t create a plan across the offseason and alter it in a major way because of spring training results.

There are exceptions, of course, like San Diego's acquisition of Craig Kimbrel the day before Opening Day a season ago. It wouldn't be a shock, for instance, if Milwaukee were to deal catcher Jonathan Lucroy before the season. Lucroy, like Kimbrel, is a valuable asset on a rebuilding team, and he's been the subject of trade speculation for much of the winter.

It would be a shock, though, if Sonny Gray or Chris Sale were moved. Remember, the Red Sox checked in on the asking price for Gray, Sale and a whole host of starting pitchers back in November, deeming the cost much too high. Most teams wanted a young major-league contributor back — a piece like Mookie Betts or Xander Bogaerts — and not a host of prospects. Atlanta's haul from Arizona for Shelby Miller — a young major-league contributor in Ender Inciarte, a major-league-ready starter in Aaron Blair and last year's No. 1 overall pick in Dansby Swanson — reiterated the sky-high trade prices for starting pitchers.

Likewise, the Indians have had plenty of time to shop their starters. If Cleveland were actually desperate for an outfielder, it wouldn't have passed on Austin Jackson or other available free agents during the spring.

The Sox have also been connected to San Diego's James Shields on the rumor mill. While Shields fits the profile of a player who could be moved this time of year, Boston wasn’t interested in the right-hander as a free agent after 2014. The Red Sox didn’t deem a fly-ball, homer-prone pitcher such as Shields a good fit for Fenway Park at that time, and he doesn’t appear to represent that much of an upgrade over the expected rotation. (It would be even harder to believe that the Padres would have any interest in taking Pablo Sandoval off Boston's hands in any kind of deal.)