MLB Insiders Keep Picking Apart Red Sox’s Trade Deadline Decisions
Breslow had great expectations for the trade deadline, but made just two deals
Despite winning seven straight games, MLB insiders continue to pick apart the moves made (and not made) by Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow ahead of the July 31 trade deadline.
Breslow completed two deals last week, trading for starter Dustin May and reliever Steven Matz. But the Red Sox came up empty in their search for a power-hitting first baseman or a top-of-the-rotation arm.
The Athletic’s Jim Bowden called the Matz deal his “weirdest trade.”
“I just didn’t understand the move for Boston: adding a 34-year-old failed starter-turned-reliever who is making $12.5 million (and will be a free agent at season’s end) for (Blaze) Jordan, who has slashed .304/.373/.486 between Double A and Triple A this year,” Bowden wrote.
But wait, there’s more from Bowden who noted Boston was the “front office that asked too much in trades … at least according to several opposing general managers.”
As a result, Bowden said Red Sox Nation was the fan base that “heard crickets. … The front office publicly built up their trade deadline, but then didn’t make any trades to move the needle in their quest to beat out the Blue Jays and Yankees,” Bowden wrote.
MLB.com’s Theo DeRosa, in breaking down the trade deadline, talked to “33 MLB.com experts” for their votes on the moves made by clubs. When it came to naming the “contending team had the most disappointing Deadline season,” the Red Sox received 11 votes, second only to the Chicago Cub, who got 13 votes.
“The Red Sox were also considered a club that could have benefited from going big at the Deadline. Boston acquired lefty Steven Matz from the Cardinals and righty Dustin May from the Dodgers, but neither has nearly the upside of, say, Red Sox offseason acquisition Garrett Crochet,” DeRosa wrote. “The club wasn’t able to add a right-handed bat to the mix, either. Especially in the lineup, Boston has the talent to overcome a lack of major upgrades, but its inaction could prove to be an issue down the stretch.”
Last but not least is ESPN’s Jeff Passan, who handed out his trade deadline awards. He gave the “Pittsburgh Pirates Award for frustrated fan base” to the Red Sox and Cubs.
“The Red Sox were willing to part with a number of high-end prospects to land right-hander Joe Ryan from the Minnesota Twins,” Passan wrote. “But that wasn’t expressed until the deadline was nearing, and the Twins were so deep in other talks to disassemble their roster, the prospect of moving Ryan had lost appeal.”
However Passan tried to put the decisions made by the Red Sox and Cubs in perspective. “Could their front offices have ignored those realities and gone for broke? Sure. And none of their fans would have minded. For now.
“But if they lost in October this year and one of the prospects they moved broke out, not only would the deals be seen as failures, but because they would’ve been made against the advice of analytical models, they would’ve been of the you-should’ve-known variety,” Passan concluded.
