The Boston Red Sox sit just one game above .500 entering their Tuesday night matchup with the Cleveland Guardians — putting themselves in a less than ideal situation a week before the Major League Baseball trade deadline.
As they barrel toward the deadline, one question has started to arise from the baseball world: Are they buyers or sellers? In an appearance on NESN’s pregame Red Sox coverage, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom gave his best answer.
“It’s useful shorthand, but internally we hate thinking that way. And I don’t think anybody around here likes thinking that way,” Bloom said. “I can tell you, like I said, I think everybody kind of moved between what happened before the break and what happened this weekend and wrote off this group. We’re not.
“We’re trying to make the postseason. So, whatever that means — we’re going to explore a lot of stuff. Some of them might be things people expect, some of them might not be. But you know, we want to get this group into the postseason.”
Keeping their options open has become a theme for the Red Sox under Bloom’s leadership. In 2021 — a year in which they made the American League Championship Series — the Red Sox made moves to acquire both immediate difference-makers and pieces they can develop for the future.
Bloom’s vision for the Red Sox is to have a sustainable contender who can win not just one championship, but multiple.
“It’s never something where you get to an endpoint and say, “Okay, we’re good,'” Bloom said. “You look around, especially in our division and there’s no tougher division in sports… So if you say, ‘Okay, we’re there. Box checked, we’re good.’ That’s the surest way to end up back in the basement.”
So, no matter the moves they make, the Red Sox will keep an eye on how their return will effect the club in the immediate and distant future. Fans will be better off remembering that throughout this next week leading up to the Aug. 2 trade deadline.
