Red Sox

How the Red Sox’ trade deadline stacks up with their competition

Let’s quickly review Boston’s closest competition for the American League postseason and what they did.

By Jon Couture

August 2, 2024

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Email
• Email
• 3

COMMENTARY

You were underwhelmed by what the Red Sox did at the trade deadline, weren’t you?

Percentage play on my part. July 30 was the focus for so many weeks, if not months, I’d argue it actually dulled a bit of the excitement around Boston’s pre-break run, happening in the shadow of similar teams getting little help each of the last two years.

Craig Breslow promised decisiveness and completed the shopping list. James Paxton for the rotation. Danny Jansen as a righthanded lineup piece. Lucas Sims and Luis García for the bullpen. (There’s also Quinn Priester, but file him under “future considerations.”)

Still, it’s . . . I get it. Two years ago, Juan Soto moved at the trade deadline. The year before that, Max Scherzer and Trea Turner. Manny for Jason Bay, anyone?

That was 16 years ago. It’s a different sport, and one where there were many deals — 60 in the last six days, and 32 on Tuesday alone — but few blockbusters. Ninety prospects changed hands, according to Baseball America, but none in their top 100.

Wednesday offered a reminder that results matter more than flash, as Jansen and Sims each played a key part in a needed win over the Mariners. Small, but a promising start.

And a reminder: Everything’s relative. Let’s quickly review Boston’s closest competition for the American League postseason and what they did.

Baltimore/New York

Tied atop the East on Friday morning at 65-45, 6.5 games clear of the Red Sox, one of them will dump into the wild-card race. Each feels a step above, despite Alex Cora’s exhortations that his team keep a division title in mind.

The Orioles did plenty, adding starters Zach Eflin (Rays) and Trevor Rogers (Marlins), relievers Seranthony Dominguez (Phillies) and Gregory Soto (Tigers), and big swinger Eloy Jimenez from the White Sox. There might’ve been no team with more ability to grab one of the big starting pitchers, be it Tarik Skubal or Blake Snell or Garrett Crochet, but the Orioles held off.

Two of the pieces they held have since been summoned to Baltimore. Jackson Holliday hit a grand slam on Wednesday and top-15 prospect Coby Mayo was called up to replace Jordan Westburg, who had his hand broken by a pitch.

They did not, however, add a lockdown setup man — Dominguez is intriguing, but he’s also a guy the title-contending Phillies were good with losing — and gambled on Rogers, who’s been dreadful this year and looked no better Thursday.

That’s more than the Yankees got. No one’s looked better on their new team than Jazz Chisholm after four homers in his first three games, but the Yankees didn’t add a starting pitcher, floating problems with Jack Flaherty’s medicals while also saying they’d have traded for the Tiger (who ended up with the Dodgers) if they could have “matched up” with Detroit’s demands.

Owner Hal Steinbrenner is already on record that New York’s $300-plus million payroll is “not sustainable,” and GM Brian Cashman made clear that keeping flexibility was in mind as he shopped.

“That certainly was a hurdle to try to navigate, but there’s very few players with that type of number,” he said. “[Steinbrenner] told me on some of the bigger items that had multi-year attachments that were significant, that could impact our flexibility as we move forward.”

Mark Leiter Jr. (Cubs) is a great bullpen add, and one of the great bat-missers in the sport this year. But for a team urgently chasing a title, it was a fireworks-free deadline.

Kansas City

The Royals, contending into August for the first time in nearly a decade, added Michael Lorenzen, fireballing relievers Hunter Harvey and Lucas Erceg, plus all-or-nothing hitter Paul DeJong.

They were unequivocal buyers and checked all their boxes, GM J.J. Picollo having made clear he had “a sense of responsibility to help” make the team better after free agents — among them ex-Sox Hunter Renfroe and Michael Wacha — committed to the franchise over the winter.

They are an intriguing mix of veterans who’ve seen a pennant race before and young risers who never have. Bobby Witt Jr. just had one of the best months you’ll ever see — .489/.520/.833, with seven homers and 16 extra-base hits in 23 games.

The Red Sox make their seemingly annual August visit to the Kansas City sweatbox on Monday. It’s a major chance for each to differentiate themselves from the other.

Minnesota

The Twins, like many, were looking for another starter. Costs proved prohibitive, and they ended up making one move, for Blue Jays reliever Trevor Richards.

“We had a lot of time spent on deals that ultimately didn’t come to pass,” baseball ops boss Derek Falvey told reporters. “I believe in our group.”

Sounds vaguely familiar.

“One person in the Twins clubhouse said Wednesday that they had no words for the team’s limited action at the trade deadline a day before. Another described some teammates as being ‘disheartened’ by the team’s lack of deals on Tuesday,” The Athletic’s Dan Hayes wrote Thursday. “But the majority of Twins players said low expectations ahead of the trade deadline left them mostly indifferent.”

That does, too.

Houston/Seattle

The Mariners were just here, so I won’t say much beyond Randy Arozarena (Rays) and Justin Turner (Blue Jays) looked good for a team that desperately needed offense. The Astros, whom Seattle sat even with in the AL West on Friday morning despite a litany of pitching injuries?

Feels like three prospects, including two in Houston’s top five, is a lot for a rental of Yusei Kikuchi, whom the Red Sox have knocked out before the end of the fifth all three times they’ve seen him since the start of the 2023 season. He, and forgettable Yankees reliever Caleb Ferguson were the extent of their adds.

“We felt like the hit was needed to get what we needed in the starting rotation,” GM Dana Brown told reporters. “And we felt like it was a fair deal according to the market.”

A day earlier, he’d said, “you don’t want to get caught not doing anything to help the major-league team get back to the postseason.”

You love to see it, if it’s not your team saying it.

. . .

From that group, plus Cleveland (and, perhaps, the Rays, who made 10 mostly-sell trades but are just 4.5 games out), are your American League playoff teams.

Who stands out? Houston, atop the West with a worse record than the Red Sox, and not in a good way. Minnesota, with a better record than both, perhaps largely being inactive because of payroll concerns.

The Red Sox don’t. They did something without doing something crazy. That’s not all anyone can ask for at a trade deadline in a contending year, but it sure beats a lot of what plenty of teams get.

It is on them now. The last two seasons, Chaim Bloom’s inaction at the end of July sold a lot of ‘Underdog’ shirts and gave a lot of cover to two Red Sox teams who crumbled in the final sprint. No such cover in 2024.

There’s very little slouch in this next run: At Texas and Kansas City, home with Houston and the Rangers, at Baltimore, at Houston, Arizona. Especially for a team that looked as sloppy as it did at times against Seattle, only to escape with two of three thanks to some new faces.

All any of us wanted was games that mattered into August. We have them.

This group now needs to show it can win them.