BOSTON — The Red Sox entered July 30 at 56-49 and just a game out of a playoff spot in the American League.
It’s a similar scenario to the last two seasons for Boston. Both of those campaigns saw moves, if any, of minimal impact in the immediate. As a result, the Red Sox faltered and fell apart down the stretch to miss the postseason.
This season, first-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow saw what he needed to and chose to seek improvements to the roster. While maybe not in massive transactions, the Red Sox did fill needs and added six total players leading up to the 6 p.m. deadline on Tuesday.
Here are four takeaways from Boston’s moves at the MLB trade deadline:
NEEDS WERE ADDRESSED
The Red Sox in some variety entered this stretch with goals of finding a right-handed bat, a starting pitcher and a reliever.
Boston did acquire at least one of each.
The Red Sox decided to move on from Reese McGuire, designating him for assignment. Boston then made a deal for their new backup catcher in the right-handed hitting Danny Jansen from the Toronto Blue Jays. He recorded two hits in his team debut on Sunday night against the New York Yankees and Alex Cora told reporters on Tuesday that Jansen will catch on Wednesday.
In the rotation, the Red Sox welcomed back an old friend in lefty James Paxton. Boston traded for the starter after the Los Angeles Dodgers designated him for assignment after a rather strong start against the Red Sox on July 21. He rejoins the rotation looking to continue momentum under the guidance of pitching coach Andrew Bailey.
Finally, and as of late most importantly, the Red Sox needed to dive in on the relief market as their short-handed bullpen struggled out of the All-Star break. Boston was able to add three arms by claiming righty Yohan Ramirez on Sunday before trading for a pair of right-handers on deadline day in Cincinnati Reds arm Lucas Sims and Los Angeles Angels reliever Luis Garcia.
While each name individually may not move the needle for the Red Sox, those are three areas of improvement for a team fighting to play in October.
NO SPLASH? HERE’S WHY
In the final days leading up to the deadline, it became clear across MLB that the price for pitching, regardless of position and talent, would be rather high.
As a result, teams like the Miami Marlins, Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays cashed in on a seller’s market with massive returns for their departing pitchers.
The Red Sox chose smartly to not mortgage their future in a year that appears to be the start of a successful window and not a season to push all of their chips in with a roster on the brink of a championship.
That could be a real possibility within the next two years. For now, the Red Sox operated accordingly and made team-friendly additions to give the ballclub a boost for now.
CONFIDENCE IN THE BALLCLUB
No matter how big or small the moves, the Red Sox found ways to improve and invest in a young team that would greatly benefit in their development from postseason experience in 2024.
Alex Cora certainly believes in his teams abilities and expressed that in a challenge to change course of shortcomings in each of the previous two seasons.
Craig Breslow’s decision to add to the roster echoed a similar sentiment of belief in competing from the front office.
STEPS FORWARD FROM PAST
As previously stressed, not making significant in-the-moment improvements at the trade deadline derailed any previous momentum for Boston in 2022 and 2023.
The 2024 team, while only slightly better record-wise at this point, plays with a sustainable style and appears to be in the race for the long haul this season. The Red Sox rewarded them for that play.
Now, it’s up to Boston to hit the ground running as their additions arrive for a competitive final two months of the season.
