There is a throw-your-hands-up way to look at these Red Sox, particularly after losing two of three to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field over the weekend.
At three games out of the final Wild Card spot, and one game over .500, it's not a club that should be deemed worthy of giving up much of anything to make a run. Ride it out, hope for the best and look forward to the future.
Watching the team that dropped Sunday's 4-1 decision to the White Sox, that would certainly be the easy narrative to jump aboard.
But there is another way to go, one which the Seattle Mariners chose one year and one day ago.
It was June 27 and the Mariners were six games under .500, by all accounts on the outside-looking-in when it came to postseason consideration. So when they made the deal for veteran first baseman Carlos Santana - sending Kansas City minor leaguers Wyatt Mills (yes, that Wyatt Mills) and Will Fleming (no, not that Will Fleming) - many wondered what Jerry DiPoto was doing.
Oh, and at that time, the Red Sox were 7 1/2 games in front of Seattle, nine games over .500.
Well, 21 games later, the Mariners had gone 17-4 and ultimately made it to the American League Division Series.
The moral of the story is that sometimes a little late-June push goes a long way. The Red Sox experienced on June 28, 2018 with the acquisition of Steve Pearce. The Mariners reaped the benefits last season. The Angels - who acquired both Eduardo Escobar and Mike Moustakas over the weekend - are currently giving it a whirl while jockeying for Wild Card position (sitting one game out).
And, now, it's a shoe that would seemingly fit Chaim Bloom and Co.
For starters, when it comes to starting pitching, the Red Sox have reached a point where acquiring another starter is almost their only avenue (other than a series of bullpen games). They were reminded of how delicate the depth of this rotation is when James Paxton left due to a knee injury Saturday, and that's already being a man down in the five-man rotation.
The strategy of riding out this razor-thin-room-for-error starting rotation until Tanner Houck and Chris Sale return seems tremendously dangerous. The kind of danger that ultimately pushed the Red Sox right off the late-summer cliff starting in July.
Another benefit of being proactive when it comes to securing a starting pitcher is that with more than a month before the trade deadline, if things do go suddenly south than that same player can be flipped for something of equal (or even better) value.
Then there is that aforementioned notion that it's simply not worth it. In some seasons, that would be the case. But these flawed Red Sox aren't all that worse than any other team in the American League this time around, and are chasing a third Wild Card spot that would be playing a less-than-imposing Central Division first-place club.
The team that we witnessed with eight in a row, and then another six straight, can legitimately compete with any club in the American League with just a tweak here and a tweak there. Yes, even the might Rays might be vulnerable come October because ... well, because they always seem vulnerable in October.
In a season of crossroads, this feels like the Red Sox have come to one yet again. This time, it feels like a well-placed new face might be the best guide to lead them down the proper path.
