2023 Trade Deadline: Red Sox Approach Prompts Clear Takeaways

The 2023 Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and gone, and we’re not entirely sure the Boston Red Sox were notified of the proceedings.

The Red Sox made a single move Tuesday, acquiring middle infield depth in the form of Luis Urias from the Milwaukee Brewers. In a week where the expectation was that Boston would flip its most valuable pieces to fill needs, it landed a guy who has been stuck in Triple-A trying to get right from a string of injuries. Are we being a little harsh? Sure, but we say it knowing there are some solid things to take away from this approach.

Here’s what the 2023 MLB trade deadline told us about the Red Sox:

The foundation is in place for Boston’s next postseason run
There is plenty of talent on the Red Sox roster. If there wasn’t, there’s no way chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom would have taken this approach to the deadline.

The 2023 season started with a ton of questions about Boston’s young core. Would Masataka Yoshida be worth his offseason price tag? Could Triston Casas break through the glass ceiling? Is Jarren Duran an every day MLB player. Would Brayan Bello be able to put his brilliant flashes together and become a legitimate front-line starter?

The answers? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

That doesn’t even go to mention the face of the franchise Rafael Devers, as well as the young arms who have stepped up like Josh Winckowski, Kutter Crawford and catcher Connor Wong, who has been superb behind the dish. It’s certainly a good place to start Boston’s next step toward winning.

Bloom isn’t interested in renting
In his four seasons running the Red Sox, Bloom has traded for two rentals. There was the Kyle Schwarber deal, which nearly got Boston to the World Series but was an absolute fleecing and the kind of deal that comes around once in a blue moon, and there was the Tommy Pham deal, which didn’t have much of an effect on the team either way.

Bloom has tended to opt for players that come with team control like Nick Pivetta, Reese McGuire and Eric Hosmer, or prospects he can plug into the Red Sox’s ever-growing farm system. The pipe dream of dealing for someone like Lucas Giolito or Eduardo Rodriguez was never going to happen.