The Boston Red Sox were as busy as you could possibly be on Monday.
If you missed the events of the trade deadline, go ahead take a look at the three deals that they were able to agree upon:
TRADE 1
Red Sox: C Adley Rutschman, C Jake Rogers, and Cash
Orioles: RHP Anthony Eyanson, RHP, Kyson Witherspoon, OF Enddy Azocar, C Carlos Narváez, PTBNL
TRADE 2
Red Sox: LHP Erik Miller
Giants: IF Marcelo Mayer
TRADE 3
Red Sox: OF Eli White
Braves: RHP Tyler Uberstine
I could hand out grades for each of those moves
but that has already been done, so what we’re going to do is look at how they all came together and what it means for the organization in the grand scheme of things.
The Red Sox have been butchered for overpaying for Rutschman, selling low on Mayer, and making the relatively confusing addition of White, but what they also did was reiterate a point previously made by chief baseball officer Craig Breslow after the Curtis Mead deal:
“I’ve tried to shift to our goal so it’s not to win the trade. Our goal is to make our major league team better.”
If you’re taking that into consideration, it’s safe to say that they’re better today than they were on Monday, no?
Mead’s inclusion in that list of trade deadline acquisitions certainly makes it look better, but even when acknowledging the fact that he might not return until the postseason you can easily see how much they upgraded with Rutschman, Miller, and (kind of) White. I haven’t even mentioned what things could look like if Roman Anthony and Trevor Story return before October, but now is as good a time as any…
POTENTIAL PLAYOFF LINEUP
- Roman Anthony (L)
- Curtis Mead (R)
- Adley Rutschman (S)
- Willson Contreras (R)
- Wilyer Abreu (L)
- Ceddanne Rafaela (R)
- Masataka Yoshida/ Jarren Duran (L)
- Trevor Story/Andruw Monasterio (R)
- Caleb Durbin (R)
BENCH: Eli White/Jahmai Jones, Romy Gonzalez/Anthony Seigler
POTENTIAL PLAYOFF PITCHING STAFF
- Sonny Gray (RHP)
- Ranger Suarez (LHP)
- Payton Tolle (LHP)
- Jake Bennett (LHP)
RHP: Garrett Whitlock, Justin Slaten, Tyron Guerrero, Brayan Bello, Ryan Watson, Greg Weissert
LHP: Aroldis Chapman, Erik Miller, Patrick Sandoval, Jovani Moran
It’s not going to look like that because… well, nothing ever ends up turning out the way we expect and that is too many players, but that’s as deep a roster as we’ve seen all season. Boston wasn’t going to do any better, either, especially if they weren’t willing to give up Mayer, Eyanson, and Azocar.
Breslow almost certainly overpaid on all three moves, so go ahead and complain about that if you want. I just don’t think there was any other way to capitalize on a once-in-a-generation run, and isn’t that what this is all about? The Red Sox have an opportunity to go compete for the American League, and after what we saw over the weekend, they could even conceivably compete for a World Series.
If that takes flirting with the line of aggressiveness and recklessness… so be it.
