It may not be Craig Breslow’s primary responsibility to worry about his public perception, but a lot of Boston Red Sox fans aren’t feeling too kindly toward the chief baseball officer.
Not even two weeks ago, Breslow (with the support of ownership and manager Alex Cora) traded superstar designated hitter Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. The Red Sox were in the middle of a five-game winning streak, but decided the time was right to trade their best hitter.
It was a move made to rid the clubhouse of a player the organization felt was setting a bad example, and to recoup the $254.5 million they still owed Devers. But Breslow quickly drew the ire of the fan base by saying he felt the team could perform better than they would have with Devers by the end of the season.
On Thursday, during his appearanceon WEEI’s Greg Hill Show, Breslow doubled down. Even as the Red Sox have lost five games in a row, with the worst DH production in the leauge minus Devers, he affirmed his belief that the Red Sox are buyers at the trade deadline.
“There’s obviously a lot of baseball between now and then, but we absolutely went into this season with the expectation that we were going to compete,” Breslow said. “And looking to the trade deadline as an opportunity to bolster the team, that’s still where our heads are. We want to add to this team. We want to improve our chances down the stretch, because we still think that this is a team that’s capable of making a deep postseason run, and it’s one that we believe in.”
In reference to the Devers trade and the money his team saved, Breslow gave a predictably vague answer about how the team could somehow wind up better off in the long run without a hitter who was sporting a .905 OPS in a Boston uniform.
“The trade deadline doesn’t operate the same way as free agency, so dollars are certainly helpful in that they provide flexibility and they give us the opportunity to maybe go down paths that we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise, but so does the deep farm system,” he said. “And so, I think there are going to be a number of different ways that we can improve the team come the deadline.”
In fairness to Breslow, it’s too early to come out and say, “We’re selling.” The players who are still working to turn things around in Devers’ absence don’t deserve that, and in a weak American League, a turnaround remains possible, if unlikely.
However, it’s hard not to hear what the CBO has been saying in the wake of the Devers trade and feel anything but immense frustration. Boston is probably a Rafael Devers away from the playoffs on paper right now, and there’s not a straight-line solution to replacing his production.
