Red Sox playoff chances weakened by inactive trade deadline
The Red Sox have slim playoff chances after they did nothing to add depth to the team. Dave Dombrowski is content with the team they have now.
With the Boston Red Sox doing nothing at the trade deadline, what does that mean for their playoff chances? It’s not great. They have a dire need for bullpen help and failed to address this concern.
The Red Sox are currently out of the playoffs, a drastic change from when they ran away with the division title last year. Their entire relief pitching staff has 4.54 ERA so far this season, per Fan Graphs. It needs to be lower than that if they want a playoff spot.
The Red Sox only have two relief pitchers on the current 25-man roster with an ERA under 3.00. Brandon Workman at 2.08 and Darwinzon Hernandez at 0.00 (in 8 2/3 innings as a reliever). The rest of their relief pitchers have an ERA of over 3.00. The highest is Nathan Eovaldi, who currently has a 12.74 ERA as a reliever, but we haven’t seen much of him in that role. There were reports of him being the closer but now he’s only going to be an overpriced middle reliever.
There is also not one starting pitcher with an ERA under 3.00. The two aces of the team, Chris Sale and David Price, are not having the years they should be. The Sox are 17-25 in games started by their co-aces, which equals a 66-win pace, per Tony Massarotti’s Baseball Reporters. Not having the aces on their game means their playoff chances aren’t great.
The amount of blown saves the Red Sox have with their relief pitchers is scary. They are 30th in save percentage and rank second for the most blown saves in the American League. Ryan Brasier has six blown saves and a save percentage of 70%, Workman has four with a 55% save percentage, and Matt Barnes has three with a 40% save percentage.
Meanwhile, Dombrowski feels that there is no need for bullpen help. The Sox are the most desperate for decent relievers but they don’t have a farm system good enough to trade for help. They would’ve had to trade from their big league roster to acquire pitching.
They are at best a Wild Card team and won’t be winning the division this season. Dombrowski made that perfectly clear that they are content with what they have because of the place they are in the standings. They have the highest payroll in baseball and yet they do nothing but still think they can win with what they have.
"If we were in first place, I would've been more open minded to more things," said Dave Dombrowski. Said the team's lack of success on the field made it not worth giving up a premium player or prospect for help.
— Tom Caron (@TomCaron) July 31, 2019
There weren’t many rumors that the Sox were in on anyone in the early afternoon Wednesday. While other teams were getting better, like the Houston Astros, who added Zack Greinke.
Top 10 Red Sox players in Hall of Fame. dark. Next
The plus side is that the Yankees did nothing either but the Sox aren’t catching them in the division. They have 30% chance to make the postseason and a 0.9% chance to win the World Series. Those are obviously not high chances so it looks like it’s going to be a rocky final two months of the season.