What it means when Frank Wren shows up to scout during trade deadline season

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It's a rite of passage this time of year.

When Frank Wren shows up to a ballpark, you're going to get some tweets about him being at that ballpark. Welcome to the new world of covering the MLB trade deadline.

"No question," said the Red Sox special assistant to Dave Dombrowski when asked if his presence at places this time of year is getting more attention than ever. "It's like the other day when I was in Detroit within 10 minutes of walking in the ballpark all of a sudden it's tweeted. It's just kind of craziness sometimes."

For example ...

#RedSox have top advisor Frank Wren in Detroit for Marcus Stroman's start against the #Tigers. Detroit's Shane Greene is another possibility for Boston. The Red Sox also had a top scout watching Bumgarner-Syndergaard last night. @MLB @MLBNetwork

But, according to the former Atlanta Braves general manager, the hype isn't always warranted.

"It's kind of been the norm over the last few years where they look at different scouts are and who is attendance when certain guys throw or when certain teams are playing and they try and connect the dots," Wren noted. "Many times I'm just there because that's what I've been scheduled since February where I planned on being. And there's other times I'm there for a purpose, so it goes back and forth."

So why have so many relied so much on the location of Dombrowski's "top advisor" these days? Wren brings up a logical explanation, at least when it comes to how the Red Sox do business.

"There are some general managers who are very open and some who are a little less open," he said. "When that's the case the media is looking for any way to kind of peer into what is really going on. OK, the scouts were at this game, this game or this game so that must be what they're looking at. And you guys are doing your job. That's fine, it doesn't bother anybody."

To be fair, the exercise of monitoring the media dining sign-in sheet, or giving the scouts' seats an extra detailed perusal is a worthwhile exercise this time of year, even if the impetus for the attendance isn't what reporters might be banking on.

"It really runs the gamut on that. There are times you have all the T's crossed and all the I's dotted so you're not really doing that much special assignment stuff, and there are other teams play poorly and then all of a sudden guys are available that you didn't know were going to be available so you want to get a last look at them, so it really runs the whole thing," Wren explained.

With just about a week until the trade deadline rolls around Wren has been spending these past few days at Dombrowski's side at Tropicana Field. Early next week he will join the rest of the Red Sox' front office hierarchy in Boston for the final days leading up until July 31, as has been the organization's routine since Dombrowski took over. No matter where the baseball operations boss is, that's where his chief decision-makers will be, as was evident in 2016 when flying a good chunk of the front office out to Anaheim.

"Quite often you get new information, you get new ideas, so having everybody in the room where you can bounce things off of them and form a plan is very helpful," Wren pointed out. "Without having to try and run them down at a ballpark somewhere, on the road or flying, you have everyone in the room where you want to check their thoughts. I think it's very helpful.

"I really enjoy what I'm doing. You get a voice and I think that's one of the things guys appreciate working with Dave is that they get a voice. They're asked their opinion and he's going to have you do what you do, which is evaluate players or run departments. But he's going to ask you your opinion and then he's going to make his ultimate decision."