It's safe to say the Boston Red Sox's performance at the trade deadline was underwhelming. All the teams around the Red Sox in the playoff race — the Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays and Rangers — improved while they stayed almost the same.
But Boston didn't let the lackluster moves get it down. The Red Sox swept the Houston Astros for the first time since 2013 in a series when Garrett Crochet didn't pitch and their offense faced Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez.
The Astros posted a decent performance at the trade deadline. They bolstered their infield with Carlos Correa and Luis Urias and their outfield with Jesus Sanchez. Still, the Red Sox's offense trampled them, with 14 runs to their five in the three-game series.
This Boston team is worthy of more, better additions than it got, and the team has felt that way in recent years. Ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, Alex Cora was critical of the team's moves (or lack thereof) in the previous two seasons, saying, "we didn't get better." He reacted much more positively to Craig Breslow's 2025 performance.
The Red Sox's resilience after the trade deadline speaks volumes about their recent success
“I think we got better,” Cora said over the weekend. “I think the team is a lot different than the last three. We’re more complete, we pitched better, our bullpen is in a great place.”
There is still a lot of baseball left in the season and the Red Sox have a long way to go until the postseason race is decided. But sweeping the Astros, the first-place team in the American League West, is a big deal, and it's hardly the first example of this Red Sox team fighting through adversity.
The Sox also took the Rafael Devers trade in stride and waltzed into the All-Star break on a 10-game winning streak just one month after the deal. In the immediate aftermath of the trade, Boston's offense faltered and posted a six-game losing streak that included a sweep at the hands of the Angels (Alex Bregman was also on the injured list at the time), but it rebounded and now sits three games back of the lead in the AL East.
The Red Sox's ability to recover from unforeseen circumstances and play for each other above all has been a spectacle this season. They have the hardest second-half schedule in the major leagues and their trade deadline performance won't make it much easier, but if the Red Sox stay as resilient as they've been all year, their opponents may not matter.