Zolak & Bertrand: Will the Red Sox add at the trade deadline?
On Monday’s edition of Zolak & Bertrand, the crew dives into whether the Red Sox will be adding at the trade deadline.
I’m preparing for nothing…
Zolak and Bertrand begin the week by questioning if the Red Sox winning their series at the Yankees changed their front office and ownership’s mind about buying at MLB’s trade deadline, which is July 31.
Zolak: Here’s what they’re going to do: they’re going to do nothing. They’re going to do nothing, and you could say they’re playing a cat-mouse game because you want to keep the price down. You don’t want to act like, ‘Hey, we’re in this thing. Phones are open. We’re ready to make deals. We’re ready to pay.’ You want to keep the price down. They’re going to look at this and say, ‘OK, we’re cruising right now. We’re above expectations.’ They may actually sell. They may be a playoff team, potentially sell, and get those three young kids up here and say because, ‘We’re building for the future.’ See what we’re doing here? We’re going to have Triston Casas back at full-go next year. I know Casas is coming back, but we’re going to have him. He’ll be good. We’re going to get Trevor Story back at some point. So our team and the way it’s going to be built for next year, this is all feeding into it. We like where we’re at right now. They’re looking at the graphs, they’re looking at the data, as they like to call it.
Tyler Milliken: But the data is different. This is not like the last couple of years where you stood. You go back to the trade deadline, and I think them saying we haven’t made a decision yet. Listen, most teams are that way with the trade deadline now or with the all-star break and how the MLB draft is. It’s a two-week crunch until the deadline. They didn’t want to buy they didn’t believe in this team. They viewed it as a developmental year. So they’re going to let this thing play out as far as they possibly can before their hand is forced. But this is a 48 percent chance to make the playoffs, and you’re holding the third wild card right now, gaining on the second. The last two years at the trade deadline, you had a 24 percent chance and a 24.6 percent chance. This is different, but the data is what Breslow believes in. You are in a different space than you have been. If you play hard the next three weeks, they are going to have to buy to some level.
Zolak: Yeah, but that’s great if Breslow believes in it. But what does the owner believe in? The owner told the fan base to be smarter.
Bertrand: It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Zolak: I’m preparing for nothing. I am preparing for nothing.
Bertrand: The truth is, if they thought the team could make it, and they actually were interested in making it. That’s the key part.
Zolak: They’re a fun team. I give it to you. They’re a fun team to watch.
Bertrand: Whether or not they’re capable is not factoring into their equation. It’s about their desire. Do they want to go for it or not? They’re certainly capable. They’ve proven they’re capable of being a playoff team. You don’t need any more evidence. It’s July 8. They would have to completely crap themselves over the next three weeks and lose 80 percent of their games for you to look at them and say, ‘Oh, we were wrong about them.’ They could play .500 ball, between now and the deadline, and they would still be worthy of investing in because you’ve seen enough from this team to know there’s something to this team. There’s something there. This team has something going for it. We know that. This team looks different.
Listen to the full segment!