Xander Bogaerts opens up regarding Christian Vazquez trade
HOUSTON - The Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and gone, with Nathan Eovaldi still a member of the Red Sox.
The Red Sox starting pitcher who will be eligible for free agency at season's end had drawn significant interest from 4-5 teams, per major league sources. The asking price was, however, prohibitive, with one source saying the Sox were asking for "the moon" when it came to Eovaldi.
"If you had asked me last night I would’ve thought we would’ve made more moves than we did," Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said after the deadline expired. "The way the day unfolded, the way we looked at opportunities in front of us, at the end of the day we didn’t want to force anything. We did not have the first four months of the season that we were hoping to have. That’s not news. We’re in last place. But it is a unique year in the division. I think when you have a chance at the playoffs, a real chance, even if it’s not the chance you were hoping to have, or even the chance we had a month ago, that’s not something you take lightly. And we wanted to do what we could to bolster that chance and still do the right moves for the organization. At the end of the day, we weren’t going to force anything that didn’t fit those goals."
Eovaldi's value certainly took a tick up after his outing Monday night in which he held the Astros to two unearned runs over 6 2/3 innings, with his fastball creeping back up to 96 mph.
Along with Eovaldi, fellow starter Rich Hill was also drawing interest until the last few minutes until the deadline, with the Twins, Phillies and Cardinals in pursuit.
"We’re good. We’re good, and we have a good baseball team," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "Obviously, we have work to do but I think where we’re at as a team, it’s not perfect. There’s some pieces that got here. Obviously we traded Christian, that wasn’t great on a personal note. But it’s a business. We understand that. I think at the end of the day, we accomplished a few things we wanted to do and now we just turn the page and be ready to win the series tonight.”