The Boston Red Sox' lack of activity at the 2023 MLB trade deadline left many scratching their heads.
While their American League competitors loaded up for a playoff push, the Red Sox stood pat with the exception of acquiring infielder Luis Urias from the Milwaukee Brewers. That's despite chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom stating his desire to add pitching.
Shortly after the 6 p.m. ET deadline passed, Bloom explained the organization's decision to forgo any major moves.
"We were on the phone near constantly today and through a lot of yesterday, just looking at all sorts of possibilities and just trying as much as we could to stay true to everything I've talked about," Bloom told reporters. "We really like what we're building. It's not something that we're asking people to close their eyes and dream on. You're seeing it more and more each night on the field, the core we're building, what we're building towards. So we basically, understanding that we're underdogs this year right now where we are in the playoff odds, we just tried to stay true to that."
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"That could've meant going out and adding and it could've meant if we're able to get a core player. And I told you guys this leading up to the deadline that it might result in guys leaving our club. But ultimately, at the end of the day, didn't match up on any of those things, and we're ready to roll with this group. We like where our arrow is pointing and hopefully we can do some special things the rest of the way, and certainly feel very confident that we'll be able to continue building on this next year and beyond."
Oddsmakers may consider the Red Sox to be underdogs, but the wild-card standings say they're firmly in the mix with two months left in the regular season. They enter Tuesday night only 2.5 games out of the final wild-card spot. Each of the three AL teams currently holding wild-card spots --- the Tampa Bay Rays, Houston Astros, and Toronto Blue Jays -- made an effort to improve their rosters over the last week.
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So, what does Bloom's deadline approach say about his belief in this year's club? Does he see this team as a true playoff contender?
"Yeah, I do. But obviously, we're not there right now," Bloom answered. "We've got to go prove it. There's a lot of baseball left to be played, a lot of different things that can happen. I think everybody in there believes that, I believe that. But we have to go out and show it. We have to go out and do it. We obviously need to play well. We need continued good health, and we need the baseball gods on our side just like every team does. Certainly, I believe in the talent in that room. The way we're playing, the way we're going about things I think would indicate that. But we've got work to do and we've got to keep doing it.
"We've been talking since Day 1 about, we need to get better, we need to keep getting better. Well, that's still the case. Obviously, I think we've come pretty far from where we were earlier in the season, but there's more work to do. So we can't sit here and feel like just because we believe we can be a playoff team that it's going to happen. We need to continue to put in the work, we need to continue to get better."
The first step for the post-deadline Sox will be snapping a three-game losing skid. They'll look to bounce back in Game 2 of their three-game set in Seattle on Tuesday night.
