John Tomase breaks down why the Red Sox’ young core deserves a real chance to compete for the playoffs this year.
The Boston Red Sox would be in the playoffs as the third American League Wild Card if the season ended today. To maintain a postseason spot come October, they may need to bolster the roster before this month's trade deadline.
First-year chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told MassLive.com's Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo on The Fenway Rundown podcast that the front office remains undecided on its deadline approach. He did, however, identify two specific needs if the club opts to buy: starting pitching and right-handed hitting.
“I think there are certain kinds of profiles that teams tend to look for at the deadline and I don’t imagine we’ll be a whole lot different,” Breslow told McAdam and Cotillo. “You can never have too much pitching. You’re always an injury away or, a handful of unfortunate outings away from being in a hole and, at times when you don’t have starting pitching depth to get through the second half of the season, that places a pretty significant burden on a bullpen.
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"I think we’re always exploring pitching, especially when you look at the imbalance of our system, right? Quite a bit of strength on the position player side, not quite as much on the pitching side. So that would certainly be an area of opportunity for us. We’re also pretty left-handed (hitting) heavy. The chance to maybe look to add some right-handed offense could make sense."
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If the Red Sox pursue pitching, left-handers should be a priority. Relievers Brennan Bernardino and Bailey Horn are the only southpaws on the active roster. Fortunately, there should be plenty of intriguing options to choose from if Breslow and Co. are willing to pay the price.
Right-handed hitting has been a glaring weakness since the start of last offseason. Tyler O'Neill, Ceddanne Rafaela, Rob Refsnyder, Connor Wong, Jamie Westbrook, and Romy Gonzalez are the only righty hitters currently on the big-league club.
With the MLB trade deadline exactly three weeks from Tuesday, the Red Sox' performance in their next couple of series will be pivotal. They'll start a three-game set vs. the lowly Oakland A's at Fenway Park on Tuesday before another three-game home series against the Kansas City Royals, who currently sit 1.5 games behind them for the third and final Wild Cards spot.
This year's deadline is set for July 30 at 6 p.m. ET.
