Several Boston Red Sox players were vocal about wanting the team to add talent prior to the MLB trade deadline. But Chaim Bloom didn't act on their desires.
Despite an obvious need for pitching, the Red Sox made just one minor move at Tuesday's deadline, acquiring scuffling Milwaukee Brewers infielder Luis Urias and optioning him to Triple-A Worcester. The team's inactivity was puzzling: Not only did Boston fail to find trade partners for veterans Adam Duvall, Alex Verdugo and James Paxton -- all of whom reportedly had interest from other teams -- but Bloom also declined to improve his squad and even declared the Red Sox "underdogs" despite them entering Tuesday just 2.5 games out of a wild card spot at 56-50.
So, how did the Red Sox clubhouse take Tuesday's relative lack of action? Star third baseman Rafael Devers, who said in explicit terms last Sunday he wanted the team to add pitching, tried to be diplomatic.
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"Those are things you can’t control," Devers said Tuesday night through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez, via Mass Live's Chris Cotillo. "Obviously, we’re happy with the 26 guys we have here. The most I can do is just try to say what everybody knows but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen."
All-Star closer Kenley Jansen, meanwhile, suggested Bloom's "underdog" label could lead the team to play with a chip on its shoulder down the stretch.
"That’s a motivation to me," Jansen said. "If you want to put us as underdogs or put us that we’re not gonna make the playoffs, stuff like that always fuels me.
"I want that to fuel all these other guys in here and be hungry about it to prove everybody wrong. For me, my whole life, I proved everybody wrong. I want (everybody) in this clubhouse to feel the same way, too."
Tuesday marked the second consecutive deadline under Bloom in which the Red Sox failed to make significant additions while trading away a popular veteran (Christian Vazquez in 2022 and Kiké Hernández in 2023). While players seemed more measured in their reactions to this year's deadline, Cotillo did note that some players "privately wished more had been done" but declined to comment on record.
Last year's Red Sox tanked in August and September en route to missing the playoffs, so perhaps this squad is trying to avoid the same outcome by putting a positive (or neutral at best) spin on Bloom's inactivity. But if the Sox rally to reach the 2023 postseason, it won't be thanks to any moves their boss made on Aug. 1.