TORONTO — Less than a week remains in the regular season and barring a wild turn of events, the Boston Red Sox will — yet again — be on the outside looking in as the postseason commences.
A 4-1 win on Monday over the Toronto Blue Jays moved the Red Sox to 79-78, already one win more than they’ve had each of the last two years. It marked the first time they’ve won three games in a row since Aug. 4-6.
“Just win tomorrow and see where we are at and finish strong, that’s the goal,” manager Alex Cora said, noting the 79-win mark. “We’ll talk about it whenever we’re done. We set our sights to make it to the playoffs and it’s a very slim chance to make it. So just got to keep playing good baseball.”
Unless something dramatic happens, the Red Sox’s postseason drought will reach three years. If they can’t pick up three more wins before Sunday, they’ll finish below .500. It would be the first time the club has finished with a losing record in three straight years since 1992-94.
It didn’t have to be this way, especially in a year in which the American League wild-card race is so topsy-turvy with the expanded format.
Imagine if the Red Sox had gotten a few more upgrades at the trade deadline. Where would they would be at this point? Of course, they’re a flawed team, but every team in the race right now has its warts. There are no runaway favorites and getting a relatively young club postseason experience could have gone a long way. And a postseason spot was there for the taking.
As it stands, the Minnesota Twins have been in free-fall mode, dropping out of the third wild-card spot, going 8-13 this month. The Kansas City Royals haven’t been much better, having lost seven straight. That’s allowed the upstart Detroit Tigers to surge into the picture while the Seattle Mariners, a team that fired its manager a month ago, are right there along with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Coming out of the All-Star break, the Red Sox were a young, relentless, exciting team, surging 11 games above .500. Maybe Red Sox ownership didn’t want to invest in the team over the winter (that’s another story), but after seeing what this group was capable of in a surprising first half, adding more insurance to bolster the roster for the second half should have been the move they made.
With Triston Casas and Trevor Story on the injured list much of the year, maybe Rafael Devers and Tyler O’Neill wouldn’t have burned out if another big bat had been added. Maybe a stronger starter or bullpen help would have allowed the rotation extra rest or kept the key arms in the bullpen fresher.
Yes, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow added at the deadline, but he did so on the margins, acquiring a backup catcher as his right-handed bat and three pitchers, all of whom ended up on the injured list for a significant stretch in the second half. It was clear Breslow was working within certain parameters, a particular budget, if you will.
“There were certainly moments where we were saying, ‘Man, this is going to be, not just expensive in terms of dollars, but expensive in terms of the impact it might have on our future,’” Breslow said just after the deadline. “It’s a really tough decision to make.”
No one is arguing that the Red Sox should have traded their top four prospects to bolster this Red Sox team, but there were seemingly other opportunities.
Hindsight is 20/20, but other teams didn’t break the bank and have benefitted from additions.
Arizona added reliever A.J. Puk in exchange for their No. 14 and No. 30 prospects and Puk has allowed one run in 25 innings since the trade. Arizona also added first baseman Josh Bell for a player to be named later. He’s hit .277 with a .799 OPS for the Diamondbacks.
The Orioles got Zach Eflin from the Rays for a pair of Orioles’ top-20 prospects, both of whom were at High A. Eflin has a 2.31 ERA in eight starts.
The Dodgers picked up starter Jack Flaherty in exchange for Detroit’s No. 8 and No. 22 prospects. Flaherty has a 3.40 ERA in nine starts in LA.
It’s easy to criticize the moves the Red Sox did make two months later with hindsight, but even at the time there were reasons for pause. Although James Paxton had been healthy all year for the Dodgers, his history of injuries made trading for him risky. Was it bad luck both relievers Luis García and Lucas Sims headed to the IL shortly after being acquired, or should more bonafide relievers been targeted?
Red Sox principal owner John Henry is all about investments. It’s how he made his fortune. It would have been a wise investment in the future to give the current young Red Sox club a chance at the postseason, even if it meant getting knocked out in the wild-card round. Not only would it have given a young core — inexperienced in a playoff atmosphere — that much more cache to lean on when more young players arrive next year, but it would have gone a long way with the fan base, if that matters anymore.
Instead, it was obvious the Red Sox ran out of steam. The offense hit a wall and the bullpen without Chris Martin and Justin Slaten for over a month couldn’t backfill the truncated starts from the rotation. Red Sox rookies and young pitchers wore out.
Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafalea, Wilyer Abreu, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello all played in or pitched in a career high number of games or innings. More experienced players like Devers, O’Neill and Rob Refsnyder played through injuries for much of the year and could only do so much.
Casas, Slaten, Duran, Bello, Abreu, Rafaela and Crawford all could have gained some valuable playoff time. None of them were with the team during the 2021 postseason run.
So in a year where there has been relative parity in the league and no true runaway favorites, it’s
been a missed opportunity for the Red Sox.
(Photo of Breslow: Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images)
