Craig Breslow on Red Sox trade deadline mindset: ‘The future has to be now'

New York Times

12 hours ago

BOSTON — As the Boston Red Sox return to Fenway Park for their first homestand without Rafael Devers — a trade that may have signaled the waving of a white flag on a frustrating season — chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said that's not the case.
In speaking to The Athletic before Friday's series opener against the Toronto Blue Jays, Breslow said his focus remains on contending in 2025 even as the team entered the day 40-42.
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'I think we've talked a lot about looking to the future, at some point, the future has to be now,' Breslow said. 'We went into 2025 expecting to compete for the division and expecting to make it to the playoffs. We haven't played as well as we're capable of, but that goal still exists, and we're not so far away that we should be thinking about 2026 or 2027.
'There's a lot of games to be played between now and the deadline, but we are thinking about how we bolster the team,' he said. 'How we do identify the needs that we have and are aggressive in getting those players to put us in a position that we talked about all offseason.'
With the MLB trade deadline just over a month away, Breslow already made one the most shocking trades of the season thus far in sending Devers to San Francisco for pitchers Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks and two prospects.
Following the trade, the Red Sox went 3-6 on a nine-game, 10-day West Coast trip, returning home for three games this weekend against a division opponent in Toronto.
As the Red Sox currently sit seven games back of the division-leading Yankees and two games out of the third wild card spot, there's urgency to play like a team capable of postseason contention.
Breslow addressed three areas of need in starting pitching, bullpen help and another bat for the lineup.
'The bullpen has been really good for a really long time, we've asked a lot of them,' he said. 'And I think at times we see some of the work just catching up with guys. Hopefully getting Jordan Hicks into the mix there means that we can get guys like (Greg) Weissert and (Garrett) Whitlock and Justin Wilson an extra day when they need it.'
Hicks (toe inflammation) is scheduled for his second rehab outing with Triple A Worcester on Friday and could join the Red Sox during this homestand.
Starter Tanner Houck remains on the injury list with a flexor pronator strain and is scheduled to pitch following an opener on Sunday in Worcester. Hunter Dobbins (elbow) has been playing catch and may throw a bullpen this weekend.
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Harrison, who made his first start for Worcester earlier this week, allowing four runs in four innings, is likely to be in the rotation mix at some point in the second half. Regardless, adding starting depth remains a focus.
'We have some depth built up, but whether it's injury or performance, we just haven't gotten that run of consistent deep starting pitching,' Breslow said. 'Garrett (Crochet) has obviously been excellent all season, but we saw the type of team that we can be when our starters are pitching deep into games.'
On offense, the Red Sox have predictably struggled without Devers' bat in the lineup. Over the past nine games, they've averaged 3.11 runs per game and a .188 average compared to 4.84 runs per game and a .253 average leading up to the trade.
The lineup will have some internal reinforcements soon, with Alex Bregman (quad) and Masataka Yoshida (shoulder) likely to return after the All-Star break, but Breslow suggested bolstering the lineup will also be on his agenda.
Yoshida is expected to begin a rehab assignment for Worcester on Tuesday, where he'll also see time in the outfield. Bregman hit for the first time on Friday and will take grounders on Saturday. The team will reevaluate him next week to determine when he'll be ready for a rehab assignment.
It remains to be seen if Yoshida could be traded over the next several weeks as he begins his rehab assignment. But since he hasn't played in a game this season and is owed more than $40 million through 2027, his trade value remains marginal. Breslow is likely to trade from a surplus of outfielders, with Jarren Duran's name surfacing on a few occasions already.
Manager Alex Cora offered a realistic viewpoint with the trade deadline just over 30 days away.
'We've just got to play better,' Cora said. 'It's been kind of like the same thing I've been saying all along. We're that close. You can't go back, but a pitch here, a pitch there, a play there, or a play there, and it's a positive road trip. But it wasn't. So we have to improve.'
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At the last trade deadline, Breslow's first in charge of the team, he acquired starter James Paxton, relievers Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia and right-handed bat Danny Jansen. Paxton, Sims and Garcia were injured and offered little help in the second half.
The Red Sox weren't officially out of the wild card until the final week of the season, though, giving Breslow impetus to push harder this season.
Having already traded Devers in a mid-June blockbuster, this season is already much different than last year, but Breslow said he's reflected on how this year might be different.
'We went into (last year) thinking, 'OK, these are the needs of the team,' and we walked out of the trade deadline with acquisitions that address those positions,' he said. 'Whether they work out or they don't, the moves are going to be evaluated by the performance over the second half of the season. Ours didn't work out. It's not OK to just say, 'Hey, that's baseball.' The obvious question is, 'Why didn't they work?'
'Whether that's doing more work on the players that we're bringing in, having a better understanding of their ability to perform here at Fenway, there's always more questions that we need to ask,' Breslow said. 'Whether we bring in a standard household name or we bring in someone that is lesser known, the impact is going to be driven by what that player does from the day they get here until the end of the season. And we need to do everything we can to make sure that they're going to help us win games.'
(Top photo of Rafael Devers: Eakin Howard / Imagn Images)