In his first two seasons as chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox trade deadlines were not Craig Breslow's forte. He had a chance to change that in 2026, and it looked like he would.
Erik Miller is under team control until 2029 and he's allowed just one run over 11.1 frames with Boston. Former Atlanta Braves outfielder Eli White has improved at the plate and flashed excellent defense and elite speed. But the acquisition that was supposed to be Boston's best hasn't gone to plan so far.
The Red Sox needed an upgrade at catcher and Adley Rutschman was expected to be exactly that — the longtime division rival provides elite defense and offensive potential greater than Carlos Narváez (traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Rutschman) or Connor Wong. Rutschman hasn't found himself at the plate with the Red Sox, however, and his adjustment may take even more time, given the news that he's battling another injury.
Rutschman hyperextended his arm on an aggressive swing and his elbow is taking some time to recover. He didn't play in either of Boston's first two games against the Seattle Mariners and isn't in the startling lineup for the third. He also sat out two games against the Miami Marlins and one game against the New York Yankees.
Red Sox's Adley Rutschman trade aging worse by the day as elbow injury lingers
Interim manager Chad Tracy on September 1 appeared on WEEI's "Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson" show and said Rutschman's elbow issue is "probably something [the Red Sox] are going to deal with off-and-on through the year." The injury is not so severe that the Sox have to shut him down, but it's severe enough that they need to keep an eye on it and micromanage his playing time.
The Red Sox paid an obscene price for Rutschman, including Narváez, three top-five prospects and another top 30 prospect when the catcher returned from the injured list in a timely manner. But Rutschman has been injury prone in the last few years, and he's failed to live up to his offensive potential with a .237/.318/.400 slash line this season. He has nine hits in 15 games since his arrival in Boston.
Though the sample size is incredibly small, the Rutschman trade has not been worth it for Boston so far and it probably isn't going to get much better if his elbow pain is expected to linger. The seemingly inevitable lockout in 2027 will cut into his second year of control, further slashing his value, barring a contract extension that would also be risky at this point.
Unless Rutschman's offensive output drastically changes despite his injury, the trade that brought him to Boston could go down as a massive loss. The Red Sox need him at his best for their playoff run, but he hasn't been that yet.
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