Losing two of three to the lowly Oakland Athletics wasn’t what the Red Sox needed as they try to prove they can be a playoff team and are worth investing in ahead of the Aug. 1 trade deadline.
Still, they are 10-4 in the month of July even with those two losses and they’re just 2.5 games out of a playoff spot. Boston manager Alex Cora indicated on Gresh & Fauria on Tuesday (before these two losses) that he anticipated chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom trying to add to this team.
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On The Greg Hill Show on Thursday, it was team president Sam Kennedy’s turn to weigh in on the team’s precarious position as the trade deadline approaches. Listen to the full interview below.
Kennedy said the Red Sox of the last few weeks – these two most recent games notwithstanding – do “warrant our belief and support” and called them “fun to watch,” but seemed to temper expectations when it comes to trades, saying that “belief” is actually instilled more in the offseason and that getting injured players back will be more important than making trades.
“I think it's really important that the roster, the players, the clubhouse, the staff understand and feel the support from ownership and the front office, but I think that actually happens in the offseason or prior offseasons,” Kennedy said. “And what I mean by that is, this is a roster that was built to compete in a very, very tough division. We've got, in our opinion, some of the best, if not the best coaching staffs in all of baseball. So, we've made significant investment into this team. John Henry and Tom Werner are always going to do that.
“I don't think you want to make a trade at the trade deadline just to make a trade. I think you want to make a deal to bolster what you have if you need to, if you have holes, which, really interesting as we come into this trade deadline. We're right in the mix here. We're 51-46. Think we're two or three games out of a wild card spot. Obviously not where we want to be, but recognizing we've got 40% of the schedule remaining.
“We've got the potential post-trade deadline for three impact starters to come back hopefully in the month of August with Whit [Garrett Whitlock] and Tanner [Houck] and Chris Sale and then, fingers crossed, but we might have Trevor Story coming back sooner than later, an impact arm in the bullpen in John Schreiber. So, frankly, it's much more important that we get those guys back healthy and contributing, because I think if they had been healthy over the balance of the season, we probably wouldn't be a couple games out of the wild card. I think we'd be firmly ensconced in a playoff position.”
Kennedy added that the Red Sox’ nine games remaining before the deadline could still play a big role in determining what the front office is going to.
“We just have to keep going, keep grinding. We’ve got nine games before the deadline and, I'm just being honest and direct, they're huge,” he said. “These are huge games. These three [against the Mets], and we've got two against the Braves, a couple against the Giants and the Mariners. We’ve got to go out and show that we're in this thing.”
Courtney Cox followed up and asked Kennedy what he would tell fans who believe the Red Sox need to do more than just wait for injured players to return.
“Red Sox fans know that we need to be committed,” Kennedy said. “They want us to be committed. We've shown an ability to get it done. We've also struggled and had difficult seasons. They want a competitive team that's built to be competitive for the long term. We want to win this year, we want to win next year, we want to win every year. So, again, we're not going to go out and just make a splash to make a splash. The baseball gods will come back to hurt you if you don't do the right thing for your franchise in the near term and the long term, and that's what we're trying to do each and every year.”
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