DD blew it with the pen this offseason, there's no way around it.
The idea that we could bolster the pen at the deadline is nice, but being double digits behind in the division by the time we make that addition is not.
The 16 blown saves is not the relevant number because we won some of those games. But I think we're now up to 8 blown saves that led to losses. It's a bad number either way.
I'd say you're partly right.
The Yankees are starved for success. They've won it all once since 2000. They haven't won the division since 2012. So they were definitely motivated to make some moves. And they had some payroll room.
The Red Sox had very little payroll room and they used it on Eovaldi and Pearce.
I think the criticisms of DD for doing nothing about the pen have some validity. That's about it. There was not much else he could do.
Or Sox medical staff is conducting experiments on how to take their best parts and combine them into one player who will stay healthy and hit equally well from both sides.