What Early MLB Trade Deadline Deals Mean For Red Sox

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has become increasingly forthcoming about what he and his team prioritize ahead of the MLB trade deadline. The team is buying, Breslow says, emphasizing pitching and perhaps a right-handed bat.

There’s still nearly a week to go before the July 30 deadline, but the dominoes started to fall late Thursday night — with a pitcher and a right-handed bat going in separate deals.

The defending National League champion Arizona Diamondbacks fortified their bullpen by acquiring left-handed reliever A.J. Puk from the Miami Marlins. Shortly after that deal was made official, the Seattle Mariners struck, trading for Tampa Bay Rays slugger Randy Arozarena.

Even though the Red Sox weren’t involved in those deals, the early deadline shuffle impacts the club indirectly in a few ways.

The market for relief help has been established — sort of
Puk has been league-average this season for Miami. In hindsight, the Marlins probably wish they traded him a year ago amid a 15-save season where the massive southpaw struck out 12.4 batters per nine innings. That strikeout number has dipped to 9.2 per nine this year, and he’s been far more erratic; Puk is walking a career-high 4.7 batters per nine. However, left-handed relievers are valuable, especially for teams who don’t have any reliable options.

Arizona has a middle-of-the-road farm system, and in order to land Puk, the D-Backs parted with their 12th- and 22nd-ranked prospect, according to FanGraphs. The higher-ranked prospect, Deyvison De Los Santos, is having a very impressive season. He has legitimate game-changing power, as evidenced by his 28 home runs and 61 RBIs in just 87 games across both Double-A and Triple-A this season.

Here’s the thing to remember about the Puk deal, though: Puk is under team control through the next two seasons, so he is not a rental and figures to be part of the Arizona bullpen beyond 2024. For the Red Sox, that might still be relevant, as Breslow has noted he’s interested in adding players who could not just help this year’s playoff push but also contribute in coming years.

The market for right-handed power has been established — again, sort of
The Mariners, on the other hand, added some desperately needed offensive help by swinging a deal for Arozarena. Similar to Puk, Arozarena is having a down year after playing in the All-Star Game last summer. Still, only the White Sox and Marlins have a worse team OPS this season, so the M’s will take any help they can get, especially with how well their pitching staff has performed.

The consensus on the return is interesting. The Mariners are sending Tampa Bay their No. 12 (Aidan Smith) and No. 22 (Brody Hopkins) prospects, according to MLB Pipeline’s Seattle rankings, plus a player to be named later. FanGraphs, though, is much higher on Hopkins, ranking the right-handed pitcher No. 7 on their organizational rankings, with Smith at No. 21.

The Rays, it appears, are selling
This could be good news for the Red Sox. The Sox still have six games with the Rays remaining on the schedule, all coming in the season’s final weeks. If Tampa Bay sells off even more parts ahead of the deadline, that could make for a pretty soft landing for the Red Sox in the final leg of the stretch run.

The Mariners, it appears, are buying
A 1-5 stumble out of the All-Star break put the Red Sox back on the outside looking in at the American League wild-card race, one game behind the Royals entering play Friday. The Mariners have also struggled, losing their last three and eight of their last 10, but they are still very much within striking distance of Boston and the rest of the wild-card hopefuls. The Sox hold just a 2 1/2-game lead over the Mariners with a three-game set beginning Monday at Fenway Park. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the M’s make another move (or two) to fortify their roster for a playoff push as they nip at Boston’s heels.