Why Buying at the Trade Deadline Is Actually the Best Long-Term Play for the Red Sox originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
If all that matters to the Red Sox is the future, then the front office will invest in the roster this month. Consider it a down payment on the better days we’ve been promised over the past five years.
Here’s how Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow can sell an aggressive trade deadline approach to ownership: The foundation has clearly been laid and nothing will boost the culture they’re building like a playoff berth.
No need to wait for the arrival of Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel and company. Reward this team for what they are doing now and lay the foundation for the future by giving them playoff experience. Even if the Sox are defeated in the wild card round, it will pay off in the future.
This squad is different from the last two that Chaim Bloom abandoned at the end of July, because they are on the rise. We couldn’t say the same about last year’s club, which had already exhausted its initial pitches in July, but survived thanks to a favorable schedule full of days off. After they faded in August, so did the season and they finished last.
Likewise, the 2022 club was clearly a team in transition, marking the final days of Xander Bogaerts, JD Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi and Christian Vazquez, among others. They went 8-19 that July and Bloom’s biggest mistake was not carrying out an immediate sell-off.
But this edition? Without comparison. The All-Star lineups were announced on Sunday afternoon and the Red Sox presented three local options: third baseman Rafael Devers, center fielder Jarren Duran and right-hander Tanner Houck. These are the so-called building blocks, and there’s no need to daydream about what the next generation of Double A could bring once it’s here.
To reinforce the point, the Red Sox shut out the Yankees on Sunday night to win two of three. Devers scored twice, rookie Ceddanne Rafaela homered once, and young right-hander Kutter Crawford threw seven shutout innings on just 68 pitches. Everyone in the previous two paragraphs was drafted/signed and developed by the Red Sox, who lead the race for the final wild card spot by 1.5 games over the Royals. They are also 4.5 games behind the Yankees, who are in free fall – just three weeks ago, New York led the Red Sox by 14 games.
The Red Sox (winners of 16 of 22) are everything the Yankees (losers of 16 of 22) are not. They are young, athletic, exciting and refreshingly tireless. They just show up and play, and it’s hard not to get carried away by their enthusiasm, whether it’s Crawford screaming after the bottom of the seventh, Devers admiring his two home runs, or reliever Justin Slaten and Rafaela jumping up and down as Devers threw a Tough play to end the eighth.
The Red Sox are building something reminiscent of the 2015 Celtics, who acquired Isaiah Thomas and then made a shocking run to the postseason. Even though LeBron James and the Cavs knocked them out of the playoffs in the first round, the club planted the seed that led to their title this spring. When Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum arrived two and three years later, respectively, the Celtics had already established playoff expectations. They took James to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2018, reached the NBA Finals in 2022 and won it all three weeks ago. If they had simply waited for their top picks to arrive and develop, they never would have signed Al Horford, and who knows how that would all play out.
The Red Sox deserve a similar boost, even if their odds of winning another World Series are equally low. Consider it a win-win: a short-term investment that sends a signal to the club and fans that this club deserves our attention, and a long-term investment that marks the start of something much better.
