The Red Sox failed to make the kind of impact addition Thursday that many fans wanted to see, and thought they needed in order to be a legitimate World Series contender. Some fans and media alike were quick to question whether this was another case of team owner John Henry standing in the way of more aggressive moves in order to save money.
Appearing on The Greg Hill Show Friday morning, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said that was not the case. Listen to the full interview above.
“Ultimately John, as the principal owner, can weigh in, and if he wanted to say we are or aren't going to do something, he clearly has that authority,” Breslow said. “However, John leaves baseball operations decisions to the baseball operations group, and I have yet to strongly advocate for something and have John stand in the way of it.”
Courtney Cox followed up: “So that did not happen yesterday? He didn’t stand in the way of anything getting done?”
“No,” Breslow confirmed.
The lack of a big-name addition was made even more frustrating knowing that the Red Sox already made a cost-cutting move earlier this season when they traded away Rafael Devers. Breslow has been adamant that the team is committed to reinvesting that money in the club, but it obviously didn’t happen at this trade deadline.
“Well, we talked about this at the time of the trade: the trade deadline is not free agency,” Breslow said. “And so, having some financial flexibility doesn't always guarantee you a better outcome at the deadline, but our intentions are absolutely to aggressively invest in the Red Sox, in the guys that we’re able to put on the field.”
The Red Sox did add a starter and reliever in Dustin May and Steven Matz, respectively. Both are pure rentals as pending free agents, so finances weren’t a major factor in either move. Where money could have become a factor would have been in pursuit of a higher-impact player like Joe Ryan, who is signed for cheap money this year but has two more years of team control and is in line for a major raise.
It would be fair to wonder if that’s a move Henry might nix if he were unwilling to pay Ryan on a big extension, but Breslow insists that his pursuit of Ryan and other impact pitchers was “aggressive,” telling The Greg Hill Show that he would “strongly disagree” with Ken Rosenthal’s assertion that Boston’s pursuit of Ryan was “feeble at best.”
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