Column: The Red Sox pursued quality at the MLB trade deadline. Let’s hold off on judging their low quantity of acquisitions.
The Red Sox may go ‘full throttle’ someday.
Thursday was not that day.
While Major League Baseball was a-flurry with deals throughout the week, the trade deadline came and went quietly for Boston’s ball club, which only made two moves before the 6 p.m. cutoff:
Lefty reliever Steven Matz and righty starter Dustin May.
Both are short-term rentals headed for free agency at season’s end. Neither were top names on the long list of players expected to be wearing a new uniform this weekend.
It would have been difficult for the Red Sox to make any move bigger than June’s Rafael Devers trade, and in some ways that makes Thursday’s moves, or lack thereof, more frustrating. They always have money to spend – and don’t let them convince you otherwise – but convincing the San Francisco Giants to take on the entire remainder of Devers’ behemoth contract gave Breslow payroll flexibility this season and for years to come. The Red Sox also have a top-ranked farm system from which to deal talent. Entering this season, Baseball American declared Boston’s farm No. 1 for the first time since they began their organizational rankings over 40 years ago.
The Red Sox did very little of either. Matz is owed approximately $4.1 million, and the Red Sox will have to pay the remainder of May’s $2.135 million salary. Boston flipped outfield prospect James Tibbs III from the Devers trade, to the Dodgers, and paired him with fellow outfield prospect Zach Ehrhard. Blaze Jordan went to the Cardinals for Matz.
You could argue that the Red Sox appeared more committed to buying last season, when chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made five trades in five days leading up to the ‘24 deadline.
