Question of the week: Grade the trade deadline

[mvp 78]

32 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Another fact though, is all the short stops in question did NOT get traded at the deadline. 

We didn't get Otto Lopez, but no one did

We didn't get Francisco Lindor, but on one did

We didn't trade for C.J. Abrams, but on one did

We didn't trade for Eli De La Cruz, but no one did.

We didn't trade for Zach Neto, but no one did. 

 

This tells me one of two things happened in each of these situations.  A.) the player was just simply not for sale and there was nothing that could have been done. or B.) The price was so high that not a single team in baseball was willing to go that high and considering what we paid for 1.5 years of a catcher I'd be scared to see what the price for some of those guys might have been. 

I'm not sure we can blame Breslow for not picking up a short stop......no one did.  He did get a 2nd who had the best offensive numbers moved at the deadline.  Unfortunately he got hurt. 

[Hugh2]

30 minutes ago, notin said:

It tells me the price for any of those shortstops included Arias +, and if there was such thing as a capital plus sign, it would be applicable here…

Yes, but keep in mind that no other team traded for those guys either.  Every other team interested looked at the price and said "yeah....that's too much"

I'm sure they wanted Arias PLUS a boatload. 

[mvp 78]

4 minutes ago, Hugh2 said:

Yes, but keep in mind that no other team traded for those guys either.  Every other team interested looked at the price and said "yeah....that's too much"

I'm sure they wanted Arias PLUS a boatload. 

I'm glad Craig did his due diligence. I'm glad he ultimately passed. 

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

Another fact though, is all the short stops in question did NOT get traded at the deadline. 

That's always a pet peeve of mine.  If a guy gets traded in the off-season, then questioning whether we should've matched is fair game.  But if a team held onto their player, it either means they had no intention of trading them, or their ask was so high that none of the other 29 teams wanted him.

edit-Having finished reading your post, it appears that you said the same thing.

[vjcsmoke]

On 8/7/2026 at 8:55 AM, mvp 78 said:

A if they didn't overpay for Adley (kinda the cost of doing business at the deadline sometimes). The overpay knocks it down to a B IMO. The other trades were fine IMO. 

Assuming the Red Sox can extend Adley Rutschman long term and if he plays at an all-star level the next 5 years, I will give the trade a big thumbs up. But if he turns into Trevor Story, injury prone and underperforming, I will grab a pitchfork and join the mob to throw Breslow out to the curb.

Breslow is taking a very big gamble and he gave away several of the Red Sox TOP minor league prospects to pay for this deadline move.

[notin]

28 minutes ago, vjcsmoke said:

Assuming the Red Sox can extend Adley Rutschman long term and if he plays at an all-star level the next 5 years, I will give the trade a big thumbs up. But if he turns into Trevor Story, injury prone and underperforming, I will grab a pitchfork and join the mob to throw Breslow out to the curb.

Breslow is taking a very big gamble and he gave away several of the Red Sox TOP minor league prospects to pay for this deadline move.

What if Rutschman, Eyanson, Witherspoon and Azocar all flop?

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, vjcsmoke said:

if he plays at an all-star level the next 5 years, I will give the trade a big thumbs up. But if he turns into Trevor Story, injury prone and underperforming, I will grab a pitchfork and join the mob to throw Breslow out to the curb.

Waiting until you see how the trade works out before giving a thumbs-up is not discussion-worthy.  If we extend him and get 5 years of AS level work, 9B people will give it a thumbs-up.

IRT the pitchfork, you'll be there as a mob of 1.

[moonslav59]

On 8/5/2026 at 2:29 PM, Old Red said:

Right now I would say for this year it will depend on how much they get out of the Rut Man, and how much he actually plays.  Mead was pretty much an unknown after going from team to team, and all of a sudden hit 17 HR. INC for me now with neither on the field.

So, tell us your grade right now, and give leg room to come back later and defend the praise criticism or meh opinion.

 

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, notin said:

What if Rutschman, Eyanson, Witherspoon and Azocar all flop?

It would be a C, unless Rogers leads us to a ring or Narvaez turns it around.

[vegasbob]

Strictly my opinion and a guess  at that but Breslow traded a pitcher with a sore elbow, who now is shut down with the UCL precursor.

I think that was prescient and a great deal.  

[moonslav59]

7 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Strictly my opinion and a guess  at that but Breslow traded a pitcher with a sore elbow, who now is shut down with the UCL precursor.

I think that was prescient and a great deal.  

It's not like Brez has gotten every pitcher trade and signing right, but I trust him with pitching more than any other Sox GM/CBO we've had in a while- maybe even more than DD.

I've never seen a GM add and subtract so many pitchers in less than 3 years. That includes draftees, Rule 5 picks and losses, with some coming back. Hell, he's traded for several then traded them away.

Of the 34 pitchers used in 2024, only Whitlock, Bello & Slaten have been on the 26 in 2026. Houck, Weissert, Kelly and Crawford are in AAA or on the IL.

Of the 35 used in 2025, only Whitlock, Bello, Slaten, Tolle and Moran are on the current 26. Crochet, Houck, Crawford, Weissert & Kelly are still in the system.

He's already traded Early & Uberstin from the 2026 team and cut loose Coulombe, Kahnle & Anderson and added a few during the year.

The amount of minor league pitchers he's traded- many who never played in the bigs is almost as astounding. We have yet to see Oviedo pitch, and Sandoval just started not long ago.

[notin]

8 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

 

I've never seen a GM add and subtract so many pitchers in less than 3 years. That includes draftees, Rule 5 picks and losses, with some coming back. Hell, he's traded for several then traded them away.

 

He also has moved almost all of the Sox first  draft picks (first, not just first round), having dealt away their first picks from 2020 (Yorke), 2021 (Mayer), 2023(Teel), 2024 (Montgomery), and 2025 (Witherspoon).   Only 2022 (Romero) remains, but his days are numbered…

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, notin said:

He also has moved almost all of the Sox first  draft picks (first, not just first round), having dealt away their first picks from 2020 (Yorke), 2021 (Mayer), 2023(Teel), 2024 (Montgomery), and 2025 (Witherspoon).   Only 2022 (Romero) remains, but his days are numbered…

It's both worrisome and positive.  It's real early, but we know Yorke hasn't worked out, and neither Teel nor Monty are causing me any regret, yet.  But that's a lot of #1's to lose.

[notin]

12 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It's both worrisome and positive.  It's real early, but we know Yorke hasn't worked out, and neither Teel nor Monty are causing me any regret, yet.  But that's a lot of #1's to lose.

Yorke doesn’t turn 25 until next April.  A bit early to even call him a bust.

Teel and Monty got Crochet.  That’s ok.  Mayer landed Miller, so that one could burn Boston at some point.  Yorke to Priester turned Holobetz and Yophery Rodriguez.  Probably never know honestly.

[SoxPhan]

20 hours ago, notin said:

What if Rutschman, Eyanson, Witherspoon and Azocar all flop?

Then it's a big L for the Sox. 

[notin]

8 minutes ago, SoxPhan said:

Then it's a big L for the Sox. 

I suppose it’s a more expensive mistake…

[moonslav59]

37 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

It's both worrisome and positive.  It's real early, but we know Yorke hasn't worked out, and neither Teel nor Monty are causing me any regret, yet.  But that's a lot of #1's to lose.

With so many trades involving highly significant players and prospects, plus many mid tier players, we will almost certainly regret a few. We've already seen the Sale trade pass the "TBD" label and go to the severe negative side of any grading system.

The thing I find positive is that hardly any trades are for rentals or even 1.?+ to 2 year players. There have been a few, but not many. The trade for Crochet is now TBD, after starting off looking great. The extension seemed to add to the feeling it was a good trade, but health issues could put the extension in the TBD category. Many of the trades were prospects nearing Rule 5 for prospects farther down the road and 40 man roster bubble players for prospects. By building up the farm depth with seemingly minor trades, it allowed him to then trade some higher level prospects- some nearing or at Rule 5 levels for MLB players or lower farm level prospects with more upside.

This site seemed overrun with criticisms about losing Sale, Harrison, Drohan & Priester. We may hear more when others start doing well- like Dobbins has been doing recently. It's understandable to get upset, when you see players we traded away doing well or very well, especially when the return package are prospects or players starting off slowly (like Durbin,) but Brez has had the longer term in mind with most trades. That seemed to shift some, last winter and this deadline. That makes sense, too, since we are now in "the window" where winning seems beyond just a hope.

Just about every trade makes or made sense to me, even the ones I wasn't sure about or even disliked day one. Some, like the Sale trade, I  ended up liking a few days later. I'm liking the AR trade now more than day one, but am still about 50-50. The Mayer trade still looks bad, but I think there were reasons for doing it, I'm not privy to. It seems like with Miller has major BB issues, but maybe they fix it or improve it enough. 

It's stunning how much the 26 and 40 man rosters have flipped, but the whole system seems to have been near totally purged and in in some areas re-purges again.

The 40 man roster has just 7 players on it that were there before the 2022 season started and 3 have been on the 60 IL: Houck, Crawford & Story with Wong, Whitlock, Duran & Bello. 5 more were added before Brez took over, making 12 in total. (Some on the 40 now were in the system but not on the 40- like Anthony, Sogard & KC.) There are 47 players on the 40, including 8 on the 60 Day IL, and as far as I can tell, 32 were acquired by Brez. By the end of this coming winter, the ratio may change further.

Looking at soxprospects.com's rankings list, the vast majority are Brez additions, which is not all that common, since most teams' have many top prospects that were added 3 year or longer ago.

Brez: 1 to 10. 12-13, 15-16 and 19-21

11 is Wehunt. 14 is Cespedes. 17 & 18 are Bastardo & Paez who were both lost and re-added, so maybe they don't count.

That makes 17 out of 21 as Brez guys, 2 were lost to Rule 5 and added back and two holdovers from Bloom. Romero is #22, Mullins 23, Monegro 28, and Brannon & Jo Garcia 34 & 35. The ratio after #35 looks pretty similar.

 

[a700hitter]

Adley is out on rehab.   When is the earliest that he will join the big club?

[southpaw777]

We got what we needed. Y’all can ague the price but it was a good deadline. B
 

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, a700hitter said:

Adley is out on rehab.   When is the earliest that he will join the big club?

Whenever Brez says yes.

[mvp 78]

On 8/8/2026 at 2:28 PM, notin said:

What if Rutschman, Eyanson, Witherspoon and Azocar all flop?

He still spent a lot of trade capital on a guy who was injured a lot leading up to the time he was being traded for. Easy to overlook Adley's injury history because of his name/pedigree. 

[mvp 78]

18 hours ago, a700hitter said:

Adley is out on rehab.   When is the earliest that he will join the big club?

Today. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

When a CBO keeps trading away #1 draft picks, expenses go beyond prospect potential. Those top picks get big signing bonuses, too... then there are coaches, trainers and medical staff that need to be paid for development, plus bus drivers, motel cleaning ladies, high school Subway chefs; you name it.

 

[mvp 78]

2 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

When a CBO keeps trading away #1 draft picks, expenses go beyond prospect potential. Those top picks get big signing bonuses, too... then there are coaches, trainers and medical staff that need to be paid for development, plus bus drivers, motel cleaning ladies, high school Subway chefs; you name it.

 

Think about all the vendors that get burned after their commercial star is dealt! It's gotta weigh on them too...

[notin]

14 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Think about all the vendors that get burned after their commercial star is dealt! It's gotta weigh on them too...

But think of the savings by not having to pay for all the letters and stitch work to put the entirety of “Witherspoon” on the back of a Sox jersey.  A lesson the Sox undoubtedly learned when they parted with “Teel” and “Yorke”…

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

But think of the savings by not having to pay for all the letters and stitch work to put the entirety of “Witherspoon” on the back of a Sox jersey.  A lesson the Sox undoubtedly learned when they parted with “Teel” and “Yorke”…

Theo got his ass fired for trading for Jarrod Saltalamacchia after 2 WS wins! These things add up. 

[notin]

7 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Theo got his ass fired for trading for Jarrod Saltalamacchia after 2 WS wins! These things add up. 

So now we know if the Sox ever trade for a Cubs’ outfielder, they are far more likely to target Ian Happ than Pete Crow-Armstrong…

[JoeBrady]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

He still spent a lot of trade capital on a guy who was injured a lot leading up to the time he was being traded for. Easy to overlook Adley's injury history because of his name/pedigree. 

I'm quite certain they didn't overlook his injury history.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Think about all the vendors that get burned after their commercial star is dealt! It's gotta weigh on them too...

Mayer never needed Car Shield -- he needed Captain America's shield, to try to protect him so he could stay healthy for one full season of his entire pro career.

Fans are still waiting.

[mvp 78]

34 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Mayer never needed Car Shield -- he needed Captain America's shield, to try to protect him so he could stay healthy for one full season of his entire pro career.

Fans are still waiting.

If anything, that shield is only blocking external objects from hurting him. This dude's body fails him all the time. He sure could use an adamantium skeleton like Wolverine.