Red Sox 2025 Trade Deadline Thread

[notin]

12 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

When Houck is healthy, he knows how to pitch, too. He's got some of the nastiest breaking stuff on the whole team.

Did we ever find out what Crawford's non-pitching injury was?

As of now, it looks like...

Houck is out for the 2026 season.

Crawford & Dobbins may miss start of the season.

Sandoval should be ready.

We have Crochet & Bello returning, and it looks like Gio won't reach 140 IP and opt out.

Criswell, Fitts, Harrison offer experienced depth.

We have 3-4 prospects that will be ML ready, too.

The interesting option is Giolito.  
 

He has a $14mill team option for 2026.  But if he throws a very reachable 140 IP (currently at 95), it becomes a $19mill mutual option.  Would he accept that?

[Bellhorn04]

7 minutes ago, notin said:

The interesting option is Giolito.  
 

He has a $14mill team option for 2026.  But if he throws a very reachable 140 IP (currently at 95), it becomes a $19mill mutual option.  Would he accept that?

Not if he keeps pitching this well.

He got 38.5 guaranteed after getting lit up like Times Square for 2 months. 

[Maxbialystock]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm fine with our 2025 staff. I applauded Brez for having a rotation 11-12 men deep, even after the Priester trade. We've needed all of them, and now have May and will probably give Criswell another start, while Harrison has yet to get a look.

Our staff ranking has been boosted more by the pen than the rotation, surprisingly.

Our SP'ers rank T17th in fWAR and 7th in IP. fWAR is aided by more IP, so 17th might not really reflect how highly ranked we are. We ate 0.1 ahead of #19 WSH. We are 18th in FIP & 19th in K-BB%.  (23rd in WHIP) That being said, they have been hurt by bad defense. We lead the league in Unearned runs allowed and many more scored on uncalled errors, unturned DPs and bonehead nonplays. Our starters rank 9th in ERA-, which is the best in the ALE. That's good enough for me, but still not really dominant, like I'd like to see it.

We have the 5th best pen fWAR and FIP. Our pen is 2nd in ERA-, and that is what is driving our overall staff numbers looking so good. Our pen is 5th in WHIP. To me, this is a stunning performance, and Cora deserves huge props for getting the most out of a pen that was much maligned in March. Brez & Bailey deserve credit, too.

Even with 4 of our top 7-8 SP'ers out for the rest of the year, we still have a nice staff and decent depth.

SP: Crochet, Giolito & Bello make a very nice playoff top 3 rotation. Buehler, May, Criswell, Harrison & Fitts offer some hopes we can be okay at #5, but #4 looks very sketchy, to me.
 

Even with Slaten, Hendriks and others out, for the rest of the season, this looks pretty good:

RP: Chapman, Whitlock, Wilson & Weissert make a pretty nice top 4 arms for the playoffs. Matz, Murphy, Hicks & Burdi can be a nice supporting four. (I see Alcala's days being numbered.) Bernardino, Kelly, ICampbell and SP'ers like Harrison, Criswell & Fitts might add some key pen depth over the next two months. (Sandlin may be added, when we DFA Alcala.)

 

Comprehensive and compelling.  Maybe Breslow knows what he is doing, as does the pitching coach he hired.; 

[Maxbialystock]

20 hours ago, dgalehouse said:

I think the trade deadline is overrated. There is so much hype that people get crazy. " It's the deadline. We have to do something. It's our last chance to improve. We need this. We need that. Do something, Breslow".  And we saw the weeping and gnashing of teeth when Breslow didn't do enough to please them. But sometimes it is better to leave well enough alone. And the Sox are looking pretty good post deadline. All that anger for what ? 

Target. 

The sportswriters need additional fodder to blather about.  It's also fair to say that sometimes those July acquisitions pay off that season. 

However, they automatically condemn any CBO whose team is in the hunt and who doesn't aggressively pursue reinforcements.  One sportswriter claims he has canvassed a bunch of CBO's who all agree it's impossible to make a deal with Breslow.  The sportswriter does not of course comment on the Sox current success post-July.  Or, for that matter, leading up to 31 July.  Nor does he mention that December is when the best acquisitions are made.  

 

[Bellhorn04]

4 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Target. 

The sportswriters need additional fodder to blather about.  It's also fair to say that sometimes those July acquisitions pay off that season. 

However, they automatically condemn any CBO whose team is in the hunt and who doesn't aggressively pursue reinforcements.  One sportswriter claims he has canvassed a bunch of CBO's who all agree it's impossible to make a deal with Breslow.  The sportswriter does not of course comment on the Sox current success post-July.  Or, for that matter, leading up to 31 July.  Nor does he mention that December is when the best acquisitions are made.  

 

Or that since December he has made trades with the White Sox, Yankees, Brewers, Giants, Cardinals and Dodgers...and I know I'm leaving some out. 

[Nick]

28 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Comprehensive and compelling.  Maybe Breslow knows what he is doing, as does the pitching coach he hired.; 

Just needs to keep his mouth shut about trading deadline acquisitions and winter acquisitions. Just let it happen. Never promise something you can't deliver...

[Maxbialystock]

40 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Or that since December he has made trades with the White Sox, Yankees, Brewers, Giants, Cardinals and Dodgers...and I know I'm leaving some out. 

You keep a lot better track than I do, which is great.  

[Maxbialystock]

46 minutes ago, Nick said:

Just needs to keep his mouth shut about trading deadline acquisitions and winter acquisitions. Just let it happen. Never promise something you can't deliver...

It's expected to say that, plus I think he had every intention of getting a good arm or two.  But he also knew that July is bad time to buy.  

[notin]

2 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Or that since December he has made trades with the White Sox, Yankees, Brewers, Giants, Cardinals and Dodgers...and I know I'm leaving some out. 

Pirates - sending them Enmanuel Valdez for a low level minor leaguer.

Twins - two separate trades for Jovani Moran and Jorge Alcala.

There was a second deal with the White Sox as well where we sent them Cam Booser for a minor leaguer…

[moonslav59]

47 minutes ago, notin said:

DFA Alcala with a 1.69 ERA and a 99mph fastball?Peripherals do not support that ERA at all, but he still has to be behind Isaiah Campbell in the DFA pecking order, and in the same neighborhood as Eaton, Sogard,  and Burdi.

I wonder about a potential DFA of Vaughn Grissom as well, but I think because he has not appeared in MLB this year, he can still be traded.  That potential usefulness alone might give reason to hold on to him…

I'm only looking at pitching, and the problem is Acala is out of options, so all the others can just stay on the 40.

ERAs for pitchers are deceiving.

Yes, I'd rather keep I Campbell. He's prearb and Alcala has just one arb year left and won't be on the winter 40 by the time Rule 5 comes around. Remember, 8 of our 9 sixty-day IL players have to be on the 40 before opening day.

While I would not necessarily want IC over Alcala, right now, and that is the crux of keeping Alcala, I do like 4-5 AAA pitchers more than him, right now. This is not the "keep as many options alive" time of year: it is the put your best 13-14 pitchers on the big club, at all times. Moves like the Criswell demotion have some merit, but keeping Alcala on the 26 does not, IMO.

This tells me more than his ERA does:

.852 OPS Against in 2025

.914 last 4 weeks

1.226 last 2 weeks.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

20 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm only looking at pitching, and the problem is Acala is out of options

Not true -- Alcala still has the option not to throw pitches into the damn backstop.

He's tied for the bullpen lead in wild pitches with 3 in 16 IP, but the other relievers have pitched two or three times as many innings.

[Kimmi]

6 hours ago, Bellhorn04 said:

The experts say the Yanks kicked the Sox butts at the deadline.  Oddly enough the Yanks then went 0-3 vs the Marlins while the Sox went 3-0 vs the Astros.

In the first Marlins game the Yanks 3 new relievers gave up a total of 9 runs and blew the game.  

You have to love this.  The Marlins are on a tear, BTW, but that is neither here nor there.  It's only been one series, but I'm pretty sure that the Red Sox gained at least one game on all of the teams that "did better" than us at the deadline.  I think the clubhouse is really happy that Duran is still with the team.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Kimmi said:

You have to love this.  The Marlins are on a tear, BTW, but that is neither here nor there.  It's only been one series, but I'm pretty sure that the Red Sox gained at least one game on all of the teams that "did better" than us at the deadline.  I think the clubhouse is really happy that Duran is still with the team.

Duran was not the only player we could have traded.

Abreu was high on some lists. Campbell went from almost everyone's darling to some wanting to trade him. (My guess is that some GM would really want him.)

Mid level prospects could have been dealt or packaged.

No Grissom dump. No DHam trade.

[Bellhorn04]

12 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Duran was not the only player we could have traded.

Abreu was high on some lists. Campbell went from almost everyone's darling to some wanting to trade him. (My guess is that some GM would really want him.)

Mid level prospects could have been dealt or packaged.

No Grissom dump. No DHam trade.

With complaints like these, I think you may have been interacting with Fred too much.

[moonslav59]

23 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

With complaints like these, I think you may have been interacting with Fred too much.

How 4 wins makes some forget the mood of the entire board on trade deadline night.

Fred is eternally negative. I'm not.

There is still a very significant chance, we look back and say, "What if we did ___ at the deadline."

Now that we look like stronger contenders, the impact may end up being more meaningful than we originally thought, and those original thoughts were god-awful. (OK, a few wanted us to sell, sell, sell, but almost everyone else wanted us to do more.)

Let's see how M & M do.

Let's see how Toro ends the season.

Let's see how we deal with no Mayer at 2B.

I've been no less optimistic than anyone else on this board. When things were bad, I mostly held the faith. While I don't get upset with Fred as much as many do, the fact is he's been right about us flopping. Eventually, he will be wrong, and it looks like this year might be the time. (I also think he's wrong about Rafaela, and have been on him about it for many weeks.)

[Bellhorn04]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

How 4 wins makes some forget the mood of the entire board on trade deadline night.

Fred is eternally negative. I'm not.

There is still a very significant chance, we look back and say, "What if we did ___ at the deadline."

Yes, there are always going to be what ifs, moon, that just goes with the territory.

Breslow says he put names on the table that would surprise people.  I prefer to think he's not a liar.

 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I just have one comment regarding Breslow not landing Ryan. Because we fans will never know what trade packages were involved when a trade doesn't go down, we're allowed to speculate. 

IMHO, Breslow did offer Duran and Tolle for Ryan, but the Twins wanted Anthony and Tolle. The Twins' FO were in the position to ask for anything in a trade for Ryan. Anyway, that's my take on it.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

3 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

I just have one comment regarding Breslow not landing Ryan. Because we fans will never know what trade packages were involved when a trade doesn't go down, we're allowed to speculate. 

IMHO, Breslow did offer Duran and Tolle for Ryan, but the Twins wanted Anthony and Tolle. The Twins' FO were in the position to ask for anything in a trade for Ryan. Anyway, that's my take on it.

Btw, no other contending team acquired Ryan. I'm pretty sure the Twins were asking for the moon from all the other interested teams.

[moonslav59]

31 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yes, there are always going to be what ifs, moon, that just goes with the territory.

Breslow says he put names on the table that would surprise people.  I prefer to think he's not a liar.

 

I don't think he's lying or that he did not try hard to make better or more deals.

I'm a big fan of Brez, and without knowing what was demanded or offered, I can never know for sure if he should have done something different, but I'm thinking I'd have done something more grand, fully realizing it would have been an "overpay" on paper.

I'm very happy with Breslow's overall portfolio of moves and choices, including the serious attention he's paid to upgrading pitching on the farm and 26/40 rosters. Had he not added the rotation depth he did, we'd be battling for 4th or 5th place, again. The Chapman and Wilson signings saved our season.

[mvp 78]

22 hours ago, notin said:

The interesting option is Giolito.  
 

He has a $14mill team option for 2026.  But if he throws a very reachable 140 IP (currently at 95), it becomes a $19mill mutual option.  Would he accept that?

He will opt out for sure. 

[mvp 78]

38 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Btw, no other contending team acquired Ryan. I'm pretty sure the Twins were asking for the moon from all the other interested teams.

Sox needed a better backup option and not put all their eggs into acquiring a controllable starter at the deadline. 

[Bellhorn04]

This deadline was pretty unusual, with so many teams making a flurry of moves at the end.

There have been many deadlines that the Sox did even less than getting a May and a Matz.

May's numbers are not enthralling, but I like to think that Breslow and Bailey see something they can work with.

[Bellhorn04]

55 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

I just have one comment regarding Breslow not landing Ryan. Because we fans will never know what trade packages were involved when a trade doesn't go down, we're allowed to speculate. 

IMHO, Breslow did offer Duran and Tolle for Ryan, but the Twins wanted Anthony and Tolle. The Twins' FO were in the position to ask for anything in a trade for Ryan. Anyway, that's my take on it.

From what I gathered the Sox main target was Kelly, who unlike Ryan was strictly a rental and thus less expensive.  But the D-Backs liked the Rangers' offer better. 

[Hitch]

1 hour ago, Bellhorn04 said:

Yes, there are always going to be what ifs, moon, that just goes with the territory.

Breslow says he put names on the table that would surprise people.  I prefer to think he's not a liar.

 

The quotes - 

Quote

 

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow doesn’t hold the same view that Rosenthal does over his team’s trade negotiations for Ryan.

“I would strongly disagree with that, yes,” Breslow said when asked if he agreed with Rosenthal’s assessment during an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”

Of course, Breslow’s stance shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. He told reporters on Thursday that the Red Sox were willing to get “uncomfortably aggressive” in the deals they were trying to make as they had a relatively quiet deadline, acquiring starting pitcher Dustin May and reliever Steve Matz.

As Rosenthal called the Red Sox’ efforts to land Ryan “feeble,” the team declined the Twins’ ask to include any of their big league outfielders, according to The Athletic‘s Jen McCaffrey. More specifically, Minnesota asked Boston for either Jarren Duran or Wilyer Abreu on top of the prospects it was offering, The Athletic‘s Dan Hayes reported.

In terms of the prospects the Red Sox offered, it appeared that they were willing to put their top non-big league young players on the table for Ryan. Boston’s offers for Ryan included multiple players viewed as top 100 prospects in baseball, such as pitcher Payton Tolle, outfielder Jhostynxon Garcia, and middle infielder Franklin Arias, WEEI’s Rob Bradford reported. Those players were also a part of trade offers for Marlins pitcher Sandy Alcantara, Bradford added.

Breslow iterated that he felt the Red Sox’ package of prospects for Ryan was strong enough.

“We really like our minor league players,” Breslow said when asked if he felt he might be overrating his own prospects in trade offers during his WEEI appearance. “Is it possible that we like them more than other teams? Sure. Probably because we acquired them, we have relationships with them.

 

That package feels more than fair enough. and certainly not feeble. Also, Bres has history on his side - hes not been afraid to send away big prospects, so I definitely believe him 

I'm surprised to see the same package being turned down for Alcantara, I must say. 

[Hitch]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Sox needed a better backup option and not put all their eggs into acquiring a controllable starter at the deadline. 

But yes, would have been nice if we had a rental lined up at a lower cost (that wasn't May).

[notin]

13 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

This deadline was pretty unusual, with so many teams making a flurry of moves at the end.

There have been many deadlines that the Sox did even less than getting a May and a Matz.

May's numbers are not enthralling, but I like to think that Breslow and Bailey see something they can work with.

My big concern with May is they got him from a contender, and a team that clearly knows him, for a 23yo struggling in A ball.  If May was such an asset, why did the Dodgers unload him for a package that will clearly not help this year and might never be worth anything?

[Hitch]

Just now, notin said:

My big concern with May is they got him from a contender, and a team that clearly knows him, for a 23yo struggling in A ball.  If May was such an asset, why did the Dodgers unload him for a package that will clearly not help this year and might never be worth anything?

They did say there was a clash (which May confirmed) in that they wanted to send him to the bullpen but May wanted to stay a starter, but yes, worries persist. 

[Maxbialystock]

16 hours ago, Kimmi said:

You have to love this.  The Marlins are on a tear, BTW, but that is neither here nor there.  It's only been one series, but I'm pretty sure that the Red Sox gained at least one game on all of the teams that "did better" than us at the deadline.  I think the clubhouse is really happy that Duran is still with the team.

I suspect they are not heartbroken with Devers' departure.  

[Maxbialystock]

19 minutes ago, Hitch said:

They did say there was a clash (which May confirmed) in that they wanted to send him to the bullpen but May wanted to stay a starter, but yes, worries persist. 

No doubt the worries are valid--like when they brought  Driscoll up to start a game. 

[drewski6]

57 minutes ago, notin said:

My big concern with May is they got him from a contender, and a team that clearly knows him, for a 23yo struggling in A ball.  If May was such an asset, why did the Dodgers unload him for a package that will clearly not help this year and might never be worth anything?

Because he wasnt "such an asset" , hes an option for a back end 4 or 5 starter to finish out the season, who will likely be long relief in postseason.