Red Sox will regret not acquiring a starter at the deadline

[moonslav59]

15 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

The bar was set low for an upgrade there, so it wouldn’t have taken much to be better than Narvy. I’ll say it till the end of the year. They needed a starter way more than they needed a catcher. 

mead is coming back

Anthony is now back

IKF and Story are healthy again.

they didn’t NEED a catcher more than a starter. It baffles me Breslow would prioritize catcher. Especially for what he paid for. An oft injured catcher who is already hurt again.

I'd word it like this:

We need a good bat and a good SP'er.

Catcher made the most sense to upgrade at the bat, so Rut made sense. If he just hit .728, it's a 100 point gain on the team Catching OPS and 200 on Narvy.

We shoulda gotten a SP'er, but didn't really have much left to trade. I doubt Seigler, Holobetz and Jones get us a decent SP'er. That's about all we could afford to trade after Rut.

In hindsight, maybe dont spend so much on Rut- spread it out and get a decent bat (not at Catcher) and a decent SP'er, too.

[moonslav59]

On 8/17/2026 at 3:57 PM, southpaw777 said:

Not what I meant. I meant what pitchers did we acquire to replace the ones we let go. All the depth. Who replaced Early? 

No need to replace a pitcher on the IL for the full season, so in other words, we did not subtract a 2026 pitcher when trading Early.

[moonslav59]

22 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

The bar was set low for an upgrade there...

This is precisely why we needed a catcher and bat.

[southpaw777]

20 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'd word it like this:

We need a good bat and a good SP'er.

Catcher made the most sense to upgrade at the bat, so Rut made sense. If he just hit .728, it's a 100 point gain on the team Catching OPS and 200 on Narvy.

We shoulda gotten a SP'er, but didn't really have much left to trade. I doubt Seigler, Holobetz and Jones get us a decent SP'er. That's about all we could afford to trade after Rut.

In hindsight, maybe dont spend so much on Rut- spread it out and get a decent bat (not at Catcher) and a decent SP'er, too.

Yeah, I agree. To me, yes, We could have used another bat. Especially with injuries. 
I would have liked to see something else done though.. Whether it’s a lesser catcher and a starter like you suggested,  or just go all in, like they did with Adley, on a better starter.

oh well, what’s done is done. I hope Tracy can navigate the pitching.

[moonslav59]

49 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

Yeah, I agree. To me, yes, We could have used another bat. Especially with injuries. 
I would have liked to see something else done though.. Whether it’s a lesser catcher and a starter like you suggested,  or just go all in, like they did with Adley, on a better starter.

oh well, what’s done is done. I hope Tracy can navigate the pitching.

I think, when you look at the results the main issue is batting.

When you look at the roster depth charts, the rotation looked like a strength. Some even argued that the Suarez over Bregman choice made an already unbalanced roster lopsided.

The deadline was different, so your point was correct. At that point we needed a SP'er and innings eater, but as can see now, we needed a big bat, too.

We tried and missed with Mead and his injury. We ran low on trade capital and put the rest of the beans on a bat and catcher. IMO, they were equal needs, and going halfway to fill both might have failed.

[southpaw777]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I think, when you look at the results the main issue is batting.

When you look at the roster depth charts, the rotation looked like a strength. Some even argued that the Suarez over Bregman choice made an already unbalanced roster lopsided.

The deadline was different, so your point was correct. At that point we needed a SP'er and innings eater, but as can see now, we needed a big bat, too.

We tried and missed with Mead and his injury. We ran low on trade capital and put the rest of the beans on a bat and catcher. IMO, they were equal needs, and going halfway to fill both might have failed.

You’d figure Breslow would have been smart enough to go with the starter if it was 50/50. And the fact that he gave up the farm for this guy is mind boggling. Did they scout him? He hasn’t been that good for a couple years and was always hurt. 
I mean, we could argue all day about it, but Adley would NOT have been my first choice with a package like that. 
I think Breslow will regret it. Dude is a fn mess at the plate and he’s a fat ass. It’s embarrassing 

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I think, when you look at the results the main issue is batting.

When you look at the roster depth charts, the rotation looked like a strength. Some even argued that the Suarez over Bregman choice made an already unbalanced roster lopsided.

The deadline was different, so your point was correct. At that point we needed a SP'er and innings eater, but as can see now, we needed a big bat, too.

We tried and missed with Mead and his injury. We ran low on trade capital and put the rest of the beans on a bat and catcher. IMO, they were equal needs, and going halfway to fill both might have failed.

a big problem is that we traded away 4 good young cost controlled SP in trades and only got 1 back. That will almost certainly come back to bite us.

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

I think, when you look at the results the main issue is batting.

When you look at the roster depth charts, the rotation looked like a strength. Some even argued that the Suarez over Bregman choice made an already unbalanced roster lopsided.

The deadline was different, so your point was correct. At that point we needed a SP'er and innings eater, but as can see now, we needed a big bat, too.

We tried and missed with Mead and his injury. We ran low on trade capital and put the rest of the beans on a bat and catcher. IMO, they were equal needs, and going halfway to fill both might have failed.

we should never have made the trade for mead either and i said it at the time. It's a lot easier to find FA infielders with similar ability than it is to find a YOUNG proven quality MLB arm like Early.

[southpaw777]

9 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

a big problem is that we traded away 4 good young cost controlled SP i trades and only got 1 back. That will almost certainly come back to bite us.

This has been my main concern this year. We had a ton of MLB ready depth that he just seemed to very easily let go and rely on 4 oft injured starters, who ALL ended up injured all year again, and never really replaced the MLb ready depth.
 

[moonslav59]

36 minutes ago, southpaw777 said:

You’d figure Breslow would have been smart enough to go with the starter if it was 50/50. And the fact that he gave up the farm for this guy is mind boggling. Did they scout him? He hasn’t been that good for a couple years and was always hurt. 
I mean, we could argue all day about it, but Adley would NOT have been my first choice with a package like that. 
I think Breslow will regret it. Dude is a fn mess at the plate and he’s a fat ass. It’s embarrassing 

My point was that if he used the same resources he did to get Rut, and got a SP'er and a bat, I'm not sure the results would be any better.

Of course, the hindsight results for Rut looks pretty easy to beat, I'm still thinking getting two players instead of one might have given us little help.

Sure, I'd probably like to roll the dice again, but Rut may still end up helping us- either in SEPT-OCT or 2027. While we're at it, let's re-roll the Mead for Early trade- maybe the Oviedo trade from last winter.

[notin]

2 hours ago, Randy Red Sox said:

we should never have made the trade for mead either and i said it at the time. It's a lot easier to find FA infielders with similar ability than it is to find a YOUNG proven quality MLB arm like Early.

Not in July it isn’t…

[moonslav59]

39 minutes ago, notin said:

Not in July it isn’t…

It was also a pitcher on the IL for a healthy good bat.

Then poof!

[mvp 78]

On 8/30/2026 at 3:33 PM, moonslav59 said:

I think, when you look at the results the main issue is batting.

If that was the case, he should have traded for a good hitter, not Adley Rutschman a guy who has a 701 OPS since the start of 2024.

[drewski6]

55 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

If that was the case, he should have traded for a good hitter, not Adley Rutschman a guy who has a 701 OPS since the start of 2024.

Meade?

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If that was the case, he should have traded for a good hitter, not Adley Rutschman a guy who has a 701 OPS since the start of 2024.

You should be looking for the biggest marginal gain, not just the best hitter.

[mvp 78]

24 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

You should be looking for the biggest marginal gain, not just the best hitter.

Wong has a 693 OPS this year. Narvaez was bad, but is a 700 OPS really worth what Craig gave up? 

[drewski6]

42 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

You should be looking for the biggest marginal gain, not just the best hitter.

No. I disagree with that.

[drewski6]

Feared hitters, elite hitters, and stars are worth a premium.

[Duran Is The Man]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If that was the case, he should have traded for a good hitter, not Adley Rutschman a guy who has a 701 OPS since the start of 2024.

yeah, Brez gave up waaay too much for this dude. had Shea Langeliers not been hurt, i think they could have had him for far less.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

On 8/30/2026 at 2:18 PM, moonslav59 said:

I'd word it like this:

We need a good bat and a good SP'er.

Catcher made the most sense to upgrade at the bat, so Rut made sense. If he just hit .728, it's a 100 point gain on the team Catching OPS and 200 on Narvy.

We shoulda gotten a SP'er, but didn't really have much left to trade. I doubt Seigler, Holobetz and Jones get us a decent SP'er. That's about all we could afford to trade after Rut.

In hindsight, maybe dont spend so much on Rut- spread it out and get a decent bat (not at Catcher) and a decent SP'er, too.

There shouldn't have been a Rutschman in the first place. Strictly a panic move by Brez. He should have been looking for a starter to begin with. Brez made a team in his own division better, while making his own team pretty much the same as they were before the trade. And the Sox farm much weaker.

A terrible trade.

[moonslav59]

9 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

If that was the case, he should have traded for a good hitter, not Adley Rutschman a guy who has a 701 OPS since the start of 2024.

I don't disagree.

I don't think they expected even .701, but that would still have beaten Narv by 150 points.

That would be the same us upgrading the .650 Duran with an .800 bat.

[moonslav59]

5 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Wong has a 693 OPS this year. Narvaez was bad, but is a 700 OPS really worth what Craig gave up? 

No. They musta expected .790+

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

11 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

No. They musta expected .790+

Then I look at the Yankees getting Garcia and his .850 for a handful of arms or an armful of hands -- none as good as Eyanson.

Some posters would say, "And where would we play Garcia?" And Lou Gorman would say, "Where would we play Willie McGee?"

The Yanks have about 8 DHs, but their answer would always be that they'll use Garcia in the batting order when they need a 30-home run guy to hit a bomb off Boston.

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't disagree.

I don't think they expected even .701, but that would still have beaten Narv by 150 points.

That would be the same us upgrading the .650 Duran with an .800 bat.

Not enough for the price they gave up, especially for a guy that is always injured. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Not enough for the price they gave up, especially for a guy that is always injured. 

Again, I don't disagree.

Brez gambled on his health.

Brez gambled he could hit .790+.

So far, the .790 looks like a pipe dream. His .500 OPS is 35 points below Narvaez's .535 w BOS!

OUCH!

Thehre is still a TBD aspect to the trade, but like the Mead deal, it's hard to imagine more horrific starts to the balance sheet.