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No Sale: Red Sox putting their faith in players they already have
- Updated: August 2, 2016
11:38 PM ET
SEATTLE — In lieu of acquiring Chris Sale, Dave Dombrowski emerged from Monday’s nonwaiver trade deadline with a sales pitch.
“I like our club,” the Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations said. “It’s always interesting when people say, ‘Go do this, go do that.’ I’m not really sure how many more things we would do. Every club can get better. We’re not a perfect club. But I don’t think there’s a glaring hole out there.”
Well, there is the matter of the Red Sox’s 4.36 team ERA, 10th in the American League and the primary reason for their 2-29 record when they score fewer than four runs in a game. But after making three deals last month to bolster the rotation (lefty Drew Pomeranz), the bullpen (submariner Brad Ziegler) and the bench (infielder Aaron Hill), Dombrowski capped off trade season with a tweak on the margins, obtaining left-handed reliever Fernando Abad from the Minnesota Twins for hard-throwing Triple-A reliever Pat Light.
Executives Dave Dombrowski and Mike Hazen chose not to nab any elite-level arms at the trade deadline despite Boston’s 4.36 team ERA. Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports
That’s it. There was no bold blockbuster, no go-for-broke jaw-dropper that will vault the Red Sox over the Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East or make them a World Series favorite in David Ortiz’s last season.
Instead, Dombrowski and general manager Mike Hazen are putting all their eggs in the baskets of the players they already have. If the Red Sox are going to avoid what principal owner John Henry said would be the “disaster” of sending Ortiz out without one final postseason appearance, it will be up to manager John Farrell and a $200 million roster to help him get there.
“Now we’ve got to go out and execute. There’s no question about it,” Farrell said. “We’ve got an offense, it’s deep, it’s dynamic. It’s a balanced team when you look at both sides of the ball. Whether at the plate or from the mound, the bottom line, no question, is for us to go out and execute to our …
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