Acquiring one of the game’s better power hitters in Kyle Schwarber doesn’t exactly make for a quiet deadline season, but compared to what other AL contenders did in July, the Red Sox were comparatively modest in picking up Schwarber and relievers Hansel Robles and Austin Davis. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told MLB.com’s Ian Browne and other reporters that the Sox looked into several trade possibilities, but teams put a very high price tag on pitchers in particular, leaving Bloom’s front office unwilling to sacrifice too much of the future for a short-term gain.
“There were a lot of things that were put to us where we just felt we’re not doing our jobs and ultimately we’re going to let our fans down, whether it be tomorrow or whether it be next year or the year after or all of the above if we did some of things we could’ve done to make more of a splash,” Bloom said.
The $210M luxury-tax threshold “was never a hard line” that prevented the Sox from making a trade, and Bloom said the team indeed considered some moves that would put them in excess of the $210M figure. However, “we just didn’t feel like it was worth the cost in talent, let alone the additional effects of going over the line.”
Bloom also denied a report that ownership put pressure on the front office to land Max Scherzer. The Sox were known to have interest in the former Nationals ace, and Scherzer was reportedly open to the idea of waiving his no-trade protection to come to Boston, before he eventually agreed to be dealt to the Dodgers.
More from Fenway Park…
- Chris Sale threw 81 innings over five innings in a Triple-A rehab start on Saturday, the longest stint to date of his four minor league rehab outings. Working a more standard game appealed to Sale, who told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier and other reporters that “I’m starting to get into more of a normal routine and more of fighting the same fight everyone else is fighting, instead of having an injured elbow, fighting back, rehabbing. I don’t feel that way. That’s big.” Sale mostly threw his fastball in the 91-93 mph range but occasionally reared back to touch the 96 mph mark, while striking out seven and allowing one run (on five hits and a walk) over his five innings. The left-hander is scheduled for one more Triple-A rehab start this week, and he could then potentially make his long-awaited return to the Red Sox rotation.
- Second-round pick Jud Fabian won’t be signing with the Red Sox, as a tweet from his personal account more or less (with an assist from Eminem) officially stated he will return to the University of Florida for his senior year. A $1,856,700 slot price is attached to the 40th overall selection, and rumors have circulated that the two sides were a good distance apart in negotiations — The Athletic’s Peter Gammons reported that Fabian could have landed $3M from two teams that picked later than the Sox in the second round. Due to remaining pool space, MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis writes that the Sox couldn’t give Fabian more than a $2,100,680 bonus without having to surrender a future first-round pick as punishment for exceeding their pool spending by more than 5 percent. The Red Sox will receive the 41st overall selection in next year’s draft as compensation for not signing Fabian.
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