Red Sox see few needs to address as trade deadline approaches

Boston Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski isn’t too worried about this team heading into the trading deadline.

Dave Dombrowski has taken a lot of heat for not doing enough to upgrade the Boston Red Sox at past trading deadlines. He can’t make that mistake again.

Last year, the Red Sox didn’t add any relief help at the deadline and that made a lot of people angry at the time. They ended up winning the World Series by using starters in relief roles in the postseason so that their shaky bullpen wouldn’t blow games.

However, the Red Sox have a worse bullpen this season and really need some decent relief help if they want to make the postseason. They aren’t the same team they were a year ago and they enter the day 11 games back in the AL East.

Dombrowski really needs to add bullpen help this time around. They don’t even have a closer and really need one. Nathan Eovaldi is now pitching out of the bullpen and rumored to be taking over the closer. However, he’s not really showing he can be the person the Sox can trust out of the bullpen.

Red Sox starting pitchers rank 18th in the majors with a combined 4.71 ERA. The relievers also rank 18th in the majors with a 4.59 ERA. That’s a big issue heading toward the end of the season.

Dombrowski went on WEEI today and said there aren’t a lot of needs with this team. Fans would strongly disagree after the rough start and the inconsistency from this team for the past few months.

Boston has a huge series with the New York Yankees beginning tonight which will be a big test for them. It would also be interesting after this series to see what they do at the deadline. If the Sox are 15 games out of first place, the division would be a long shot and a playoff spot might be out of reach. If they split with the Yankees, that would be good and keep them in the playoff race. Dombrowski would have to do something though regardless of the outcome of this series.

The Red Sox traded for Andrew Cashner from the Baltimore Orioles and it has been nothing but bad to start. He has a 7.36 ERA in two games he’s started for the Sox. He’s pitched 11 innings given up 14 hits, 10 runs, four home runs, and four walks. If that’s the only move Dombrowski makes before the deadline then the Sox really have a problem going into August and September. It will be a very short season for them if they don’t add bullpen help at the deadline. Yes, the starters need to be better too but the bullpen needs to be relied on to close games out.

MLB Network’s Jon Morosi tweeted the other day that the Red Sox are showing interest in two closers. Kirby Yates of San Diego and Ken Giles of the Toronto Blue Jays. Last year, the Sox had Craig Kimbrel as their closer but this year they’ve gone three months without one.

I’m hoping Dombrowski does something ahead of next weeks deadline. If they are going to make a run for the postseason they need pitching help at the deadline, no question about it.