Friday, March 29

Red Sox early trade deadline moves reveal Chaim Bloom’s uncertain direction


It isn’t easy being a Red Sox fan these days.

Imagine being a player.

Here’s a group of guys who waited all winter for a painful and divisive owner-induced lockout to finally end, showed up to Fort Myers for spring training and had to immediately wonder if Xander Bogaerts or Rafael Devers was going to be traded.

They had to watch as their unofficial team captain was asked to recruit free agent shortstops that would likely take his job the following year, then given their heads as Trevor Story was signed to a long-term deal that’ll pay him almost $24 million per year, $4 million more than Bogaerts’ annual salary.

They got off to a terrible start, falling 10 games behind the first-place Yankees after just 29 games, were written off by anybody and everybody, and then, finally, showed some life in May before putting together one of the best months in franchise history in June.

This group proved something.

It entered July looking like a no-doubt playoff team, with Fan Graphs giving the Sox a 79% chance of earning a postseason spot. It had clear needs – at first base, in the outfield and in the bullpen – but it showed that it was a team capable of bouncing back from adversity.

Too bad it was all for nothing.

Flash forward to Monday afternoon, as one of the most beloved players in the clubhouse and the team’s longest tenured player, Christian Vazquez, was reportedly being consoled by his teammates while coming off the field in Houston after learning he had been traded to the other dugout at Minute Maid Park.

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Lefty Jake Diekman, who has underperformed since signing his two-year, $8-million contract but remains a flamethrower with a wipeout slider, was also traded, as he got shipped off to the White Sox for backup catcher Reese McGuire in what appears to be a salary dump.

Oh, and the Sox reportedly, although unofficially, acquired outfielder Tommy Pham, a 34-year-old who is on the back nine of his career but is still a useful piece against left-handed pitching.

A smoke bomb to distract us from the selloff? It’s hard to fathom the move, otherwise.

None of this makes sense.

Whatever chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and the rest of the Red Sox front office members are up to, one thing is for sure: they’re the only ones who understand it.

Bloom said just last week that he believed in this team. He said he was determined to get the Red Sox to the postseason. He said it didn’t really matter a whole lot how they played in the final week leading up to Tuesday’s 6 pm ET trade deadline, which is good, since half the team is on the injured list and the Sox have been fielding a nightly lineup that resembles one that’d be used in a Grapefruit League game.

The players pleaded for help. JD Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Bogaerts and Vazquez were among those who went on the record to say they hoped Bloom would make some trades to put them over the hump.

“We saw it with Kyle Schwarber last year,” Bogaerts said. “I don’t want to talk about last year, but he was amazing for us. If we get someone, we’re not asking him to be amazing, but it was special last year.”

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Ah, last year, when it appeared the front office had let the team down at the deadline, when the Sox were also fighting a case of the injury bug. Schwarber was the key trade acquisition deadline, but he too was injured. It wasn’t until he made his debut in mid-August that the Sox finally went on a run, making the postseason by a single game and giving the fans a quality run into the American League Championship Series.

This year, though, a similar question needs to be asked as the deadline approaches: does the front office have any feel for the clubhouse?

Players have been asking for help. Bobby Dalbec and Franchy Cordero have not been serviceable big league first basemen, and that’s been quite clear for a long time. The lack of offensive production from the outfield has been a serious problem all year. And every contending team needs bullpen additions.

Bloom and Co. responded by trading away the team’s franchise catcher and a reliever that manager Alex Cora has started to use in high-leverage situations again, and adding a platoon bat in the outfield.

With Monday’s game on ESPN, reporter Buster Olney started the broadcast by saying that Red Sox players were “telling me privately, they’re feeling like they’ve been unsupported.”

They’ve said it publicly, too.

They needed support a while ago.

It’s a $240-million team with no direction. Right now, it’s not easy on the fans or the players.


www.bostonherald.com

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