What trade-deadline grade do you give Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox?
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No reader question today. Special topical edition of the Sports Q here on Major League Baseball’s non-waiver trade deadline day in which I ask the question of you:
What grade do you give the Red Sox and Dave Dombrowski for their pre-deadline moves?
I’m going with a B, though I won’t argue if you knock it down to a B-minus out of envy of the Yankees’ additions of Sonny Gray and David Robertson. (Forget Todd Frazier. He’s a stiff.)
In a vacuum, though, I think there are reasons to be satisfied by the Sox’s moves, which included picking up reliever Addison Reed Monday to go with the earlier acquisition of infielder Eduardo Nunez.
If you want to include the recall of third baseman Rafael Devers here, I’ll allow that as well, though my grade is based on the guys brought in from outside of the system.
Nunez is a capable if inefficient player who nonetheless is an enormous upgrade over those who had previously occupied the sinkhole at third base. And Reed, who once had 40 saves in a season, immediately becomes the Sox’s best eighth-inning option.
Despite their recent collective poor performance, the Red Sox do have a talented roster. They could use another bat, but what they really need is for their accomplished hitters to start playing up to their ability.
Otherwise, they had a couple of holes that needed patching. Dombrowski patched them, with relatively appealing options. The roster isn’t significantly better, but it is better. That’s B-level work to me.
But what do you guys say? What trade-deadline grade do you give Dombrowski? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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