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The Red Sox resemble the Red Sox again.
They’re not identical to the teams that spent most of the first two decades of this century in relentless pursuit of championships like they were making up for 86 years without one.
But on Monday, as the pelting downpour of trade news flooded ESPN’s bottom line and social media, things felt different than they had on deadline day in recent years.
The Red Sox were going for it.
Even last year when the Red Sox reached the postseason, the inaction at the deadline made it feel like the players and fans were more invested than management was. Like success was happening in spite of the front office, not because of it.
Craig Breslow earned much of the criticism that he absorbed over the beginning of his tenure. He mishandled people and his roster at times.
But on Monday, Breslow put his career on the line and his foot on the gas. Even after Curtis Mead was injured in his second plate appearance for the Red Sox, Breslow kept charging forward.
“Anybody who makes a trade, especially nowadays when front offices are largely pulling from the same information and using a lot of the same tools, it’s uncomfortable,” he said. “But I do think that the position that our team is right now, the opportunity that we believe we have in front of us, it warranted being aggressive and meaningfully improving our outlook. We’re hopeful that we did that today.”
It was a new look and an encouraging one.
Not far down the road, Breslow will be judged on the risks he took. Maybe Connelly Early, Anthony Eyanson or Kyson Witherspoon becomes an ace. Maybe in San Francisco, Marcelo Mayer blossoms into the next Jeff Bagwell, a multiple-time All-Star franchise cornerstone.
But more prospects miss the board than hit the bullseye. For every Bagwell, there are dozens of prospects who turn out to be Anderson Espinoza, Yoan Moncada or Blake Swihart.
And even if the players they dealt away do become productive major leaguers, that won’t matter if the Red Sox make a playoff run.
Breslow can worry about the future later. Restocking the pipeline can wait. Fans will buy playoff T-shirts just for making the playoffs. There’s a reason that even Fanatics isn’t trying to sell “Best Farm System in Baseball” gear.
While he largely received high grades from around baseball, time will tell if Breslow made the right moves to put this team over the top.
Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson each homered as the Orioles beat the Red Sox. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)AP
As long as he’s on the field, Rutschman is clearly an offensive upgrade at catcher. Carlos Narvaez and Connor Wong have been brutal at the plate despite their success behind it. But Rutschman is battling a wrist injury. It’s not clear how soon he’ll be back and if that injury will affect his hitting. Breslow wisely chose not to guess when his new catcher might be ready to return.
Rutschman is a free agent after 2027, a season that is threatened by an impending work stoppage. The catcher’s tenure in Boston could be short.
But that’s a different problem. Aggressive mistakes are much better than a team unwilling to make them.
“Over the last month and a half or so, this team has demonstrated just an incredible resilience and relentlessness and put itself kind of firmly in the playoff picture. They deserved, and our fans deserve the efforts from the front office to try and find ways to make it better.
“We felt going into the season like we had a really competitive team,” he added. “We are seeing it over the last month and a half and we wanted to do everything that we could to give ourselves the best chance to go out and compete for a World Series.”
On June 24, after the Red Sox gave up five runs in the seventh and eighth innings to blow a 6-3 lead and lose to the lowly Rockies, Breslow talking about the World Series would have seemed unhinged.
At that point FanGraphs gave them a 9.4% chance of making the playoffs. But exactly six weeks later, the Red Sox are in the second wild card position with an 85.5% chance of playing baseball in October.
Reaching the World Series is still a long shot, but in an American League without a true powerhouse, it’s become at least possible.
And a little more so after the deadline.
More Red Sox coverage
- Here’s the Red Sox lineup vs. White Sox Tuesday with no trade additions starting
- What Red Sox’ Craig Breslow said about trading Marcelo Mayer, once viewed as ‘part of a core’
- Red Sox trade: Who’s Carlos Gutierrez, ‘under the radar’ prospect acquired for Marcelo Mayer?
- Red Sox trade for versatile outfielder, send Tyler Uberstine to Braves
- Red Sox trade: Who are the three Top-5 organizational prospects sent to Orioles?
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