Making sense of Chaim Bloom’s approach at the trade deadline, and other Red Sox thoughts
The Red Sox stood mostly pat at the deadline, committing to their group for the remainder of their playoff push.
Playing nine innings while wondering if Chaim “Not Going To Rob Peter To Pay Paul” Bloom knows he’s channeling Lou Gorman …
Red Sox
1. As frustrating as it is in a vacuum that Bloom, the Red Sox chief baseball officer, didn’t add anything other than a distressed-asset infielder at the trading deadline, I get his thinking … mostly.
The Red Sox are on the outside looking in for one of the three wild-card spots, and even with a roster that offers plenty of hope for the future, their overall wild inconsistency — they’ve lost four of five since moving a season-high nine games over .500 on July 28 — isn’t a habit that will be broken this season.
In a macro sense, this franchise, with all of its resources, should never be an underdog, as Bloom referred to it. But in the micro sense, meaning this season, he’s not wrong. This is who they are, and a couple of ancillary roster moves won’t change that.
As helpful as it would have been to add a league-average starting pitcher or even this year’s version of ‘21 Hansel Robles to the bullpen, I trust that the right move at the right cost wasn’t there to be made this time.
2. I don’t believe it’s a matter of Bloom not believing in his team — a common, nuance-free conclusion around here after pretty much every other playoff contender made a move of note. It’s more a matter of two things: the basic math (baseball-reference gave the Red Sox roughly a 21 percent chance of making the playoffs as of Friday morning), and a practical unwillingness to overpay for what might be a moderate upgrade.
Bloom’s prudence is boring, but I do not believe it was the wrong approach at this deadline. I think he likes his team and where it is headed over the next few years but is properly dispassionate about what is possible this year.
3. That said, one crucial question about his team-building tactics remains: Will he be willing to part with precious prospects to land established, well-compensated help for the major league roster when such a deal presents itself?
Such a deal probably was not there at this deadline; I’m lukewarm on Dylan Cease as a long-term investment, and those Justin Verlander rumors make absolutely no sense. But this offseason should bring real possibilities to enhance the promising core with prime-of-career talent.
Will he be willing to part with, oh, Nick Yorke and Cedanne Rafaela — fine prospects, but with real questions — to bring in a star or something close to one?
4. It’s imperative — imperative — that he make such trades if the Red Sox are going to be true contenders. Bloom is in the fourth year of his tenure, and we’re yet to see him make a bold trade that sends legitimate prospects elsewhere to acquire someone to aid the big league club.
Bloom has been bold in other ways; signing Masataka Yoshida to a five-year, $90 million contract when many teams were lukewarm on how he would fare in the United States was a gutty move that worked. The next phase in this reconstruction is to be bold in trades. Can he? Will he?
5. It got the is-that-all-there-is? treatment for understandable reasons, but I really like the Luis Urías pickup. He was a terrific prospect not so long ago.
Baseball Prospectus had him at No. 17 in baseball before the 2019 season, writing, “Urías combines high-end bat-to-ball ability and barrel control with a hair-trigger quick bat, and that’s created a lot of offensive potential.”
That offensive potential shined through in 2021 with the Brewers when he hit 23 home runs with a .789 OPS. Injuries and lousy luck have dragged him down, but he’s just 26, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he ended up being what the Red Sox hoped Christian Arroyo would become.
6. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that the Marlins thought they had a shot at acquiring Justin Turner. For Bloom to consider dealing Turner — who has been a perfect fit this season (a recent column I wrote about him got inundated with Dodgers fans lamenting how much they miss him in LA) — there must have been the possibility of an enticing return.
Rosenthal didn’t mention the Red Sox’ end of the deal, but I’d bet at least a Butch Hobson rookie card that Bloom asked for Edward Cabrera, a flamethrower whose control has eluded him too often this season.
7. What are realistic expectations for Trevor Story when he returns? I say if he matches his slash line from his 2021 season with the Rockies (.251/.329/.471), hits a home run every 25 or so plate appearances, and plays a steady shortstop (by all accounts he has his fastball back), that would be a success story and an enormously helpful player.
8. Alex Cora is the second-best Red Sox manager of my lifetime — Terry Francona is, obviously, No. 1 — and tactically, navigating this season with such a flawed roster might be the best work he has done here. But I’m also conflicted, because don’t some of the Red Sox’ worst habits, particularly on defense, reflect back on him?
9. The Red Sox are going to end up being right about letting Xander Bogaerts go, and I hate it.
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