T’was the day before the trade deadline, and all through Major League Baseball, not a general manager seems to be stirring.
The trades could start flying fast and furious at any moment, but it remains to be seen how much the Boston Red Sox will join the party. They’ve yet to do anything major, which seemed to be the expectation after the fallout of the Rafael Devers trade in June.
If the Red Sox are going hard after anything, it’s starting pitching. In particular, a starter who would be under contract for next season and potentially beyond would make a lot of sense. Unfortunately, those are becoming extremely hard to obtain at the trade deadline.
MassLive’s Sean McAdam reported on Tuesday that Boston made a serious inquiry about Miami Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara, and that teammate Edward Cabrera might be of interest too.
However, McAdam not only downplayed the chances of landing either of those two, but asserted that the chances of landing any starter with team control beyond 2025 is “negligible.”
“The chances of the Red Sox landing a controllable starter seem negligible. With so little pitching inventory available to begin with, the handful of starters with more than a year of control remaining is short, and accordingly, the ask is through the roof,” wrote McAdam. “That would include Alcantara, Cabrera, MacKenzie Gore and Joe Ryan. The Red Sox have reportedly reached out on Pittsburgh’s Mitch Keller.
“’I think,’ observed an executive with one NL team, ‘some of these GMs just decided to set the asking price unbelievably high and are waiting to see if there’s someone desperate enough to meet it.’”
The Red Sox, needless to say, cannot afford to stand pat at this deadline. There’s still time, and no contender has yet snatched up all the talent, but the rotation is not in a place where Boston can feel comfortable heading into the dog days of August without reinforcements.
Whether it’s Merrill Kelly or even Charlie Morton, the Red Sox need to exit Thursday evening with at least one more arm.
