The Boston Red Sox were rumored to have interest in many high-profile players around the trade deadline, but the Yankees were the team making a splash.
The 2017 MLB trade deadline was supposed to be a big hit for the Boston Red Sox.
We were in talks to land a much needed power boost from the bat of Todd Frazier. While our relief pitching has been good this year, we just needed to add some punch to it, either in the form of Brad Hand, Pat Neshek, or even David Robertson.
The Red Sox, especially Dave Dombrowski, have not been afraid to make a deal to improve the roster, no matter the cost. Earlier this year, we gave up two of our top prospects in Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech for the true front-line ace in Chris Sale that we needed desperately to give us that tremendous pitching staff, or so we thought. We needed a left-handed pitcher last year, so we gave up another top prospect for Drew Pomeranz, and before that, we gave up a good chunk of prospects again for the dominant closer in Craig Kimbrel to put us over the top. I mean, he has the nickname Dealin’ Dave for a reason.
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We were oh so close to acquiring Frazier, but who jumped into the equation at the last second? Those damn Yankees. They put in an offer the White Sox just couldn’t refuse, and also ousted two more players in David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle.
This is not the first time the Yankees have done this to our Red Sox. Who could forget in 2004, we had Alex Rodriguez in our grasps. We were going to acquire Rodriguez, while trading Manny Ramirez to Texas, and a frustrated Nomar Garciaparra to the White Sox. The deal fell through when the MLB Players Association stepped in, which gave the opportunity to the Yankees to then acquire Rodriguez.
Other times I could think of were they gave an offer to Carl Crawford that was very ludicrous. But the Red Sox were in love with Crawford, and the Yankees knew this. So they fooled the Sox into giving Crawford a kings ransom of 7-years, $142 million dollars.
In 2009, Mark Teixeira was “very close” to signing with the Red Sox. Who did Teixeira end up with? The Yankees.
With all of that being said, I think the trade deadline for the Red Sox was a very big success, so far at least. Rafael Devers, the top prospect the Red Sox called up a week or two ago, is looking like the third baseman we have been looking for. Eduardo Nunez, who we acquired from the Giants, has been everything we have expected, and a whole lot more. He is hitting. 500 right now for the Sox and has come up big in many situations. Addison Reed will give us an even more dominant back end of the bullpen, once Joe Kelly and Carson Smith are done rehabbing from their injuries.
Next: Red Sox updated bullpen hierarchy
Even though the Sox did not play tremendously in the month of July, I feel a something big coming, thanks to the call up of Devers, and the additions of both Nunez and Reed.