After an underwhelming trade deadline that netted the Red Sox two rental pitchers in Steven Matz and Dustin May, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow vowed that the lack of impact acquisitions wasn’t due to a lack of aggressiveness by Boston’s front office.
The Red Sox, who as of the deadline sit at 59-51 and have sole possession of the second American League wild card spot, did less to impact their club than other AL contenders like the Yankees, Mariners, Astros, Tigers, Blue Jays and Rangers. The reason, Breslow claimed, was not rooted in Boston’s approach but more of a result of other teams deeming the Sox did not clear a certain threshold with their offers that would have closed bigger deals.
“We pursued a number of really impact opportunities,” Breslow said on a post-deadline Zoom call with reporters. “Obviously, not all of them work out. It wasn’t from a lack of trying to be as aggressive as possible or from an unwillingness to get uncomfortable. Ultimately, it takes two teams lining up for those trades to line up.
“We’re happy with the guys we brought in, with Steven and Dustin, but we also pursued real impact players that we felt like could improve our team in ‘25 and beyond. We were uncomfortably aggressive in trying to pursue them in the players we were trying to put into deals. Ultimately, it wasn’t from a lack of effort. Other teams needed to say, ‘Hey, that’s enough. That crosses the line.’ It wasn’t about an unwillingness to talk about our full system.”
The Red Sox entered trading season with clear needs in their rotation, bullpen and at first base and addressed two of those with short-term fixes. They sent power-hitting prospect Blaze Jordan to St. Louis for Matz, who will join the bullpen, overnight. Shortly before the deadline, they got May from the Dodgers to plug into the back of the rotation, shipping outfielders James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard to Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, players like Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor (Mariners), Merrill Kelly (Rangers), David Bednar and Camilo Doval (Yankees), Carlos Correa (Astros), Shane Bieber (Blue Jays) joined AL contenders as National League teams stocked up with the likes of Mason Miller, Jhoan Duran, Ryan Helsley, Ryan O’Hearn and others. Notable pitchers like Arizona rental Zac Gallen and controllable arms like Minnesota’s Joe Ryan, Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller, Washington’s MacKenzie Gore and Miami’s Sandy Alcantara and Edward Cabrera all stayed put. The Red Sox were in the market for the top arms available — chiefly Ryan, as has been widely reported — but fell short. While Red Sox decision-makers felt like they made an aggressive play that put the acquisition of Ryan in reach, multiple sources said the Twins never thought a deal was particularly close.
Breslow was clear that the Red Sox, who are trying to make the postseason for the first time since 2021, did not consider anyone in their farm system to be untouchable.
“I don’t think this is about an unwillingness to include guys or anything like that,” he said. “Teams have to like our players in order for that to happen. We went into this deadline feeling like, in order to accomplish what we needed to accomplish and what we hoped to accomplish, we couldn’t take some of our young minor league players off the table. We couldn’t go into this with untouchables. And we didn’t. We were willing to talk about all of our guys in the name of improving our team. It just didn’t work out.”
Breslow said that the Red Sox did draw a line when it came to subtracting from the major league team, which put together a 17-7 record in July. While “baseball trades” that would have sent someone (like Jarren Duran) from the outfield surplus elsewhere for a controllable, frontline pitcher were in play, the Sox were not willing to engage in deals that would hurt their chances to play in October. Dealing Roman Anthony to help another area of the roster, for example, was off-limits.
"We weren’t willing to take hit to our major league team and potentially impact the 2025 season in favor of trying to re-package or re-purpose in a way that might have improved the future,“ Breslow said. ”There weren’t really opportunities to both trade off our major league team and improve our 2025 outlook so we felt it was best to leave that group as it was and try to use what I think is a strong and deep system to try to improve the team."
That strategy, Breslow explained, hit a roadblock when the Red Sox going out of their comfort zone wasn’t enough to clear the bar other teams were setting for their players. Notably, the group of available top starters all stayed put. On the relief market, Miller and Duran were moved by their teams for big packages despite having control past this season.
“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 said. “We tried to put the most aggressive offers we could in hopes they were going to end in deals.
“I understand the frustration and the disappointment because we’re all looking at the last week right now in terms of the trades that were made and weren’t made. There’s not a lot of sympathy for how hard we tried to get deals across the line. I understand that.”
The Red Sox, for the fourth year in a row, will enter August having not done as much to bolster their roster as other AL contenders. A playoff push will have to come from within. Still, Breslow insisted repeatedly, it wasn’t from a lack of effort.
“A lot of the industry does appreciate the young players we have in our system,” Breslow said. “We tried to work through different combinations of guys. We didn’t approach some of these conversations as though any players were off-limits. We couldn’t line up. We were pursuing multiple impact players. On the other side, teams that were operating as sellers were trying to juggle different concepts. For whatever reason, we weren’t able to line up.
“The team has been playing well, in a position where the playoffs are pretty firmly in view. Felt like we needed to do what we could to try and bolster the team. I think I’ve been pretty outspoken about that. We pursued as much as we possibly could. Ultimately, brought in Matz and May."
