Red Sox
The Red Sox’ desire to add an impact player on Thursday won’t assuage a fanbase yearning for October baseball.
COMMENTARY
Craig Breslow said all the right things in the days leading up to Thursday’s MLB trade deadline.
Clinching the playoff spot for the first time since 2021 was far from a foregone conclusion ,with over 50 games left on the regular-season docket.
But, a 2025 Red Sox squad teeming with young talent and already showcasing plenty of resiliency was seemingly poised for some much-needed reinforcements.
“At some point, we need to stop with the stupid analogies and put the turn signal on,” Breslow told The Boston Globe last week. “We’ve played really good baseball for the last few months. We’ve put ourselves in this position where we’re going to look to improve the team. That’s where we would want to be.
“I think everybody who takes this job does so with an eye on being in a place where not only can you add to the team but it’s the right decision. We obviously have to be mindful of the future. In a perfect world, we can improve our 2024 team and also our ‘25 and beyond. That’s my job. But I think as things stand right now, we’re looking for ways to improve the club.”
The Red Sox did just that over the last two days.
With the back end of Boston’s starting rotation in shambles following injuries to the likes of Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, and Hunter Dobbins, the Red Sox rolled the dice on a former top arm in Dodgers righty Dustin May.
Less than 12 hours earlier, the Red Sox also added another lefty to their bullpen by plucking veteran Steven Matz from the Cardinals.
The Red Sox — as currently constituted — are a better team than they were just a few days ago.
But, that sentence sure seems to ring hollow for a beleaguered fan base on Thursday, considering that several other teams in a wide-open playoff race fared much better during the trade-deadline feeding frenzy.
Boston might be better … but not nearly enough to move the needle for a team desperately trying to get back to October baseball.
“We pursued a number of really impact opportunities,” Breslow said on Thursday. “Obviously, not all of them work out, but it wasn’t from a lack of trying to be as aggressive as possible, or an unwillingness to get uncomfortable. But ultimately, it takes two teams lining up for those trades to line up.
“This wasn’t about an unwillingness to include guys or anything like that. Teams have to like our players in order for that to happen. We went into this deadline feeling like, in order to accomplish what we hoped to accomplish, we couldn’t take our top minor league players off the table. We couldn’t go into this with untouchables and we didn’t. We were willing to talk about all of our guys in the name of improving the team. It just didn’t work out.”
Breslow’s candid comments won’t do much to relieve Red Sox fans who were banking on Boston reeling in some big fish at the trade deadline for the first time in over four years.
If there was ever a time for the Red Sox to push their chips onto the table in hopes of landing a game-changing talent, it would seemingly be during a summer where the AL pennant is seemingly up for grabs.
As tumultuous as this season has been at times for Alex Cora’s club, Boston currently holds onto sole possession of the second AL Wild Card spot with a record of 59-51.
The New York Yankees hold the top AL Wild Card spot, but are just 1.5 games ahead of Boston, while the team with the best record in the AL are the Tigers and Blue Jays at 64-46.
The Red Sox are far from a perfect team. But given the absence of a true juggernaut in the AL, a power bat and/or No. 2 starter behind Garrett Crochet might have been enough for Boston to orchestrate yet another deep run this fall.
Instead, the Red Sox settled for a pair of rentals in May and Matz — two players who, while far from being net negatives, don’t exactly address the evident flaws on this roster.
Boston’s inability to strike deals on Thursday was not an indictment on the state of the trade market.
While Boston improved marginally, the same can’t be said of several teams surrounding them in the standings.
The Yankees added several impact relievers David Bednar, Camilo Duval and Jake Bird, along with a dynamic defensive infielder in Jose Caballero.
The two teams that sit behind the Red Sox in the Wild Card race in the Mariners and Rangers? Seattle bolstered their lineup with a pair of major pickups in Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor, while the Rangers outbid Boston for righty starter Merrill Kelly.
Based on Breslow’s comments, the Red Sox’s inability to acquire talent wasn’t due to a lack of trying.
Boston was reportedly in talks for Kelly before the Rangers struck the deal, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal noted that the Red Sox also made a play for the top bat on the trade market in Suarez, with the intention of moving him to play first base.
Even Joe Ryan — a proven top-of-the-rotation arm under team control through the end of the 2027 season — was viewed as a top target by Boston in the closing minutes before the deadline. Still, the Red Sox could not get a deal past the finish line.
As exciting as it would be daydreaming about Suarez clubbing pitches over the Green Monster or Ryan serving as a dynamic 1-2 punch with Crochet this fall, it’s an exercise that’s just about as productive as Breslow harping on about Boston’s desire to orchestrate said deals.
Yes, it takes two to tango when it comes to getting deals done before the trade deadline.
But, with Boston still flush with an elite farm system beyond the likes of Roman Anthony — as well as holding several intriguing big-league assets like Jarren Duran — the Red Sox’s willingness to seemingly settle for safer results instead of getting uncomfortable with steep asking prices stands as a frustrating course of action.
The Red Sox got uncomfortable in December, trading two top prospects in Braden Montgomery and Kyle Teel to get an ace in Crochet.
Had the Red Sox managed to snag Ryan from the Twins, it could have cost several top prospects — potentially names like Franklin Arias, Payton Tolle, and even a blue-chipper like Kristian Campbell.
But, Ryan would have been a missing piece for a Red Sox team that would be poised to contend in both 2025 and in the coming years — especially with other younger players like Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, and others already pulling their weight at the big-league level.
Instead, the Red Sox and Cora, who has been vocal about Boston’s inability to improve at the trade deadline in recent years, will have to forge ahead without major reinforcements on the way.
Boston’s players — who have gone 21-14 since the shocking Rafael Devers trade — have done their part to warrant some second-half additions.
Instead, Boston’s clubhouse — and a fanbase yearning for October baseball — are once again left with empty platitudes about “what could have been” during another disheartening trade deadline.
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