MLB insider Ken Rosenthal unloaded on the Boston Red Sox for their lackluster trade deadline.
The Red Sox are battling for a playoff spot, and saw plenty of other teams they are chasing, or being chased by, get better at the deadline. However, Boston didn’t make any splashy moves. Instead, they acquired Dustin May from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Steven Matz from the St. Louis Cardinals.
Those moves won’t help push the Red Sox over the top, and Rosenthal calls the Red Sox’s deadline an epic fail.
“Epic fail. Comes off an epic fail of last year’s deadline with Craig Breslow, and this was an epic fail as well,” Rosenthal said on Fair Territory. “Again, they met the same problem that the Cubs ran into. Joe Ryan is another starting pitcher who wasn’t traded.
“But, my understanding is that any talks with the Twins were feeble at best,” Rosenthal added. “They didn’t come at them at hard. The Red Sox are one of many teams that use modeling and try to figure out what the best values are, and it’s all about efficiency and getting the best deal. At some point, you have to fire.”
May will be a back-end starter while Matz is a swingman out of the bullpen, and Rosenthal doesn’t think either deal makes that much of a difference for the Red Sox.
Boston is 59-51 and holding onto the second Wild Card spot.
Insider Blasts Red Sox For Not Being Aggressive
Although Rosenthal knows the Red Sox are heavy on analytics and value, the insider believes the team needed to be more aggressive.
Rosenthal points to the Baltimore Orioles, who thought they’d take a step forward with their young players, but are now last place in the AL East. With that, he believes Boston needed to be aggressive to push their chips in with the AL so open.
“They did not even address first base, which I know they have gotten decent work out of Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro,” Rosenthal said. “But my goodness, that was a position where they had to act. They tried for (Eugenio) Suarez, and they tried with the idea of playing him at first base, didn’t get him. They didn’t get a starter outside of Dustin May, who hasn’t been a very successful starter for the Dodgers.
“In the bullpen, with Steven Matz, he’s a swing guy, and he can be effective, but they needed more. This is a team that is on the rise. They may say we will be better next year, our young guys will be that much better,” Rosenthal added. “Yeah, that’s what the Orioles were saying a year ago. There is no guarantee. The Red Sox, I don’t get it.”
Instead, the Red Sox and Craig Breslow were once again patient and didn’t make any splashy moves at the trade deadline for the second straight season.
Red Sox’s Breslow Explains Lackluster Deadline
After Boston had a lackluster deadline, which fans weren’t happy about, Breslow explained to the media why that was the case.
Breslow claims the Red Sox were ‘uncomfortably aggressive’ in trade talks but couldn’t get major deals over the finish line.
“I understand the frustration and the disappointment. There’s not a lot of sympathy for how hard we tried to get deals across the line. I understand that,” Breslow told reporters in a conference call. “We believe that we have a really young, exciting, talented team and one that is capable of continuing to perform at this level and get to the postseason. That’s what our focus is on…
“If fans were in the office during this deadline, they would see that guys we didn’t expect to be willing to talk about going into these conversations, we made available,” Breslow added. “We tried to put the most aggressive offers we could in hopes they were going to end in deals.”
Although the Red Sox didn’t make any major moves, Breslow is happy to acquire May and Matz for a postseason run.
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