Perhaps most notably, Breslow suggested the Sox would choose the buy/sell lane, as opposed to trying to walk a fine line between the two paths. “The lanes we choose are dictated by many considerations and none are more meaningful than what’s happening on the field,” Breslow said. “So I am still standing firm and committed to choosing a lane. We should have more information in the next few weeks. “But one thing we can do that helps move that direction forward is win as many games as possible on the field.”
It can be difficult for front office executives to choose how to approach the deadline, as Breslow himself noted. “My job is different than what Alex (Cora) has or what the players have, whereas they can be focused on doing whatever they need to do to prepare to win the game that night. I have to think about how we can be in the best position to win tonight’s game, tomorrow’s game and next year’s game. It’s hard sometimes to try to balance all those things.
This difficulty sometimes leads decision makers to opt for a mix of buying and selling, which Red Sox fans are certainly familiar with. In 2022, the club was hovering around .500 as the deadline approached. Then-CBO Chaim Bloom traded Christian Vazquez for the astros willier abreu And Enmanuel Valdez In the most obvious “sell” move, but also lingering on impending free agents nathan iovaldi, xander bogarts, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill And jd martinezWhereas by getting “purchase” tommy pham from the Reds and Eric Hosmer From the Padres.
That plan didn’t work out in the short term, as the Sox fell far behind in the race and struggled in 2023, leading to Bloom being fired and replaced by Breslow. The Vazquez deal looks better with Abreu becoming a valuable contributor while Valdez takes on a multi-positional role at the club, but the decision not to trade with other candidates now cuts both ways as being unwise.
Given the disappointment of that deadline, perhaps it’s refreshing that Breslow is announcing he’ll lean into one camp or the other, though he still hasn’t decided between the two paths. The club is 49-40 and currently occupies the final wild card spot in the American League, with teams like the Royals, Astros and Rays not far behind. As Breslow mentioned, the results over the next few weeks will help him make decisions on how to play his cards before the deadline.
If the Sox hold on to a playoff spot, it seems reasonable to expect Breslow will choose buyer lane and he gave some hints as to what he might want to do in that scenario. He used the adage “You can never pitch too much” and also mentioned the right-handed bat as a possibility.
“You can never pitch too much. You’re always one side away from injury or, on some unfortunate occasions, being in the hole and, at times when you don’t have the starting pitching depth to get you through the second half of the season, it puts a pretty significant burden. A bullpen,” Breslow said of the rationale for looking for pitching. In terms of offense, he says the club is “pretty left-handed heavy (from an offensive standpoint).” Perhaps a chance to add some right-handed attack might make sense.
The Sox currently consist of a rotation tanner hawk, Nick Pivetta, brian bello, cooter crawford And Josh Winkowski, The Hawks were quite impressive earlier in the season but their results have dropped off a bit in recent weeks. His earned run average was 1.91 after his outing on June 6, but he had a 5.19 ERA in his five most recent starts. This could be a random change but it’s also possible that there is some fatigue involved as his 111 innings pitched this year are already a personal best at the big league level. Winkowski and Crawford are somewhat similar, as neither of them have gone much past the 130-inning range before. Bello’s ERA is 5.19 while Pivetta has a good strikeout/walk ratio but his ERA remains above 4.00 due to ongoing home run issues.
Overall, the rotation has been a strength this year, as Boston starters have a collective 3.59 ERA that is seventh-best in the majors. But there are some question marks and the depth isn’t amazing. This is partly thanks to lucas giolito, Garrett Whitlock And chris murphy All required season-ending UCL surgery. chase anderson As a long man in the bullpen, he has a 4.89 ERA despite a .203 batting average despite being very lucky on balls in play. Brian Mata He has been on a rehab assignment, but is pitching mostly two-to-three inning stints. brandon walter Has been on the injured list all year. cooper creswell This year has been great but brad keller Very weak results have been obtained.
All told, it would make a lot of sense to add to that group, especially if any of their current rotation members are going to hit any kind of workload limit. Cora recently spoke to McAdam for an article in MassLive about the club providing relief to its beginners, though those plans have not yet been finalized. And as Breslow noted, injuries can happen at any time and the need can increase. Some pitchers who may be available at the deadline include Garrett Crochet, Eric Fedde, tyler anderson, griffin canning, Yusei Kikuchi, cal quantile, Austin Gomber And trevor rogersamong others.
As far as the lineup is concerned, as Breslow said, it’s left-handed. tyler o’neil, Connor Wong And sedan rafela Is the club’s only right-handed hitter to step to the plate 180 or more times this year. Getting another righty there might balance things out but the most obvious place to upgrade would be first base and the club. Tristan Casas coming back. “You look situation-by-situation and see where we haven’t got the production we need,” Breslow said. “And obviously Tristan is a huge loss that we have to overcome, but it looks like his rehabilitation is ongoing and we’ll look forward to having him back.”
The Sox have had a modest slash of .226/.316/.384 from the first base slot this year, which translates to a 94 wRC+ that is 19th best in the league. That included strong work from Casas, who slashed .244/.344/.513 in 22 games before hitting the injured list due to torn cartilage in his midsection. dominic smith Has accounted for most of the playing time in Casas’ absence, but only hit .227/.327/.355. Smith and Casas are both lefties, so the latter’s return won’t change the left-right balance, but still if Casas is healthy and back to his old form, it should upgrade the overall offense. According to Alex Spear of the Boston Globe on X, Casas hasn’t started rehab yet, but he’s making changes and could be headed back to hitting the tee this week.
If the Sox try to bring another righty batsman to the roster regardless, here are some potential candidates to include louis robert jr, taylor ward, brent rucker, Justin Turner, danny johnson And others, other clubs are probably looking to sell and make other bats available in the coming weeks.
As far as the question of whether the Sox could take on money at the deadline, Breslow was optimistic on that front. “Any time I’ve been around,” he said, “or known about this team being in contention, playing meaningful games, looking forward to a potential playoff run, the resources have been there. I don’t even have any expectations of that. That this will be something different.”
According to payroll data from Coutts Baseball Contracts, the Sox were among the league’s biggest spenders for most of this century, but recently they have taken the reins. As recently as 2019, they had the top payroll among the majors, but this year they dropped to 12th with an opening day mark of $171MM. Competitive Balance For tax purposes, the club’s numbers are currently $208MM per Cott’s calculations and $218MM in the eyes of Roster Resources.
The CBT floor this year is $237MM, so the Sox should have plenty of room to pick up the money even if they want to stay below that line. However this is also dependent on Breslow justifying the club’s willingness to spend real dollars.
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