In the days and hours leading up to Major League Baseball’s Tuesday evening trade deadline, the Red Sox looked poised to commit to one of two routes: they’d either sell big, or buy big.
Few could’ve predicted that they’d do neither, but that’s essentially how the day played out.
The Red Sox only made one last-minute, low-level move, acquiring struggling utility infielder Luis Urias from the Milwaukee Brewers just before the 6 p.m. cutoff. That, coupled with trading Kiké Hernández back to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and adding Maurcio Llovera from the San Francisco Giants last week, is the sum of their midsummer dealings.
Do any of these moves make a significant positive impact? Are the Red Sox better now than they were a week ago?
Here’s their trade deadline report card:
Early last week, the Red Sox dealt their 2021 postseason hero back to his old team, sending $2.5 million of his remaining $3.6 million salary for this season. In exchange, the Dodgers sent minor league relievers Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman to Boston. In Baseball America’s midseason rankings, Robertson ranked No. 25 in the Dodgers system.
With how Hernández’s season was going, getting anything for him is a win. Unloading his MLB-leading errors would be addition by subtraction on its own, but coming out of the transaction with two upper-level pitching prospects, including one of the Dodgers’ Top 30, is a coup.
Covering for a depleted starting rotation, Boston’s bullpen has been worked to the bone these last two months. The relief core has also taken several hits of its own, with almost every pitcher needing at least one stint on the injured list. In fact, the Red Sox were able to add Llovera to the 40-man roster by moving fellow reliever Kaleb Ort to the 60-day IL.
Llovera has limited major league experience over the last several seasons, including a brief stint with the Phillies in 2021, and 17 games for the Giants last season. He only pitched well in five games for San Francisco before last week’s trade, only allowing one earned run on four hits, but just happened to be the odd man out in a roster squeeze. Since the trade, he’s made two scoreless appearances for Boston.
The 27-year-old right-hander isn’t arbitration eligible until 2025, so this would appear to be a solid club-controlled depth addition for the Red Sox. The only wrinkle is that Llovera is out of minor-league options, so the only way to not carry him on the big league team is by designating him for assignment or if he gets injured.
Like many players before him, Urias is someone in which Chaim Bloom sees “upside.”
At the current juncture, though, he’s a player trying to find himself again. Injuries and offensive struggles limited Urias to just 20 major league games and a few more Triple-A games for Milwaukee this year, and the Red Sox put him in Triple-A after acquiring him on Tuesday.
In exchange for Urias, the Red Sox sent 22-year-old minor league right-hander Bradley Blalock to Milwaukee. He’s pitched well in his first season back from Tommy John surgery, even showing off 99 mph velocity in Low-A Salem before getting promoted to High-A Greenville. However, he’s eligible for this year’s Rule 5 Draft, so if the Brewers don’t add him to the 40-man roster in the coming months, they may not even get to keep him for long.
While these individual moves range from intriguing to surprisingly productive, overall, none of them make a significant immediate impact. The first impression is that the Red Sox weren’t really willing to take the plunge for their current squad, with Bloom even going so far as to say on Tuesday evening that they weren’t going to make a move simply to say they made one, let alone make a splash for splash’s sake.
The front office’s decision to straddle both sides is both unsurprising and confounding given the current state of the organization. It’s simply a scaled-back version of their approach at last summer’s deadline, which they entered looking like guaranteed sellers, then tried to buy and sell. That strategy did nothing to prevent their inevitable finish at the bottom of the division; worse, by deciding not to sell off their biggest fish, the Red Sox remained over the luxury tax at season’s end, which not only added insult to the injury of their last-place finish in three seasons, but also punished them in the draft.
The 2023 Red Sox aren’t in the same boat, but they aren’t an undeniable contender, either; entering their trade deadline contest on Tuesday, they held fourth place in the division with a 56-50 record, 2.5 games out of the last Wild Card spot.
It was already a steep uphill battle to a playoff berth before several already-formidable American League teams made serious roster additions at the deadline. As such, one can argue that the Red Sox made the right decision letting all but one trade pass them by on Tuesday. That they should be able to make several significant additions to the roster in the coming weeks simply by activating star players from the injured list partially explains their decision not to go all in; Trevor Story, Chris Sale, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock are among the players currently on or about to begin rehab assignments.
However, somehow, even without three-fifths of their starting rotation, the Red Sox have been one of the best teams in baseball over the last two months. They entered Wednesday owning MLB’s best record since June 30, and the American League’s best since June 14. Since the middle of May, the pitching staff’s combined 3.70 ERA leads the AL and ranks fourth in the majors.
Overall, they’ve more than passed muster against teams with winning records this year, entering Wednesday 41-33 against teams at or above .500. This suggests that if they could sneak into the playoffs, they might be able to flip some tables, so why not go bigger at the deadline?
The answer, though many are loath to believe it, is that the Red Sox believe they are building towards something. And though this may turn out to be a bridge year to even bigger and better things, they’ve taken significant steps forward; they are clearly improved over last year, and the farm system is stronger than it’s been in over half a decade.
The question is, if this team reaches a point at which they truly look like an undeniable contender next year, or the year after, how far will the front office be willing to go to get them all the way to the finish line?