Sox boss mulls deal proposals
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said five new trade proposals arrived yesterday, with exactly one week until the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline.
Nothing was close as of yesterday afternoon, Dombrowski said, although his trades are known to come together quickly.
Asking prices are still high, but he thinks they may fall mid- to late-week. Dombrowski knows well how quickly prices can change: Last year with the Tigers, he added a large supply of talent to the market.
“Not really. Not yet,” Dombrowski said when asked if prices were falling. “There’s a week to go, so generally, three or four days beforehand, maybe (you’ll see that). But you know, it’s an interesting situation. You take risks either way. Because you can be there, and you can be asking (teams for a particular price), but then all of a sudden, if some clubs lose and there’s more players in the market that are available, then you don’t get what you were looking for, even close to that.
“Look how the marketplace changed last year when I was with the Tigers. We switched at the time (to sellers) . . . and all of a sudden David Price and (Yoenis) Cespedes and (Joakim) Soria are out there and they’re three of the best players. Well, that could happen this year, too. And if you wait — I remember last year at the very end, and I’m not going to say who, but I remember there were a couple clubs that were looking for (a higher price) and then on July 31 they were calling around and saying, ‘Would you take this guy?’ ”
He reiterated what he told the Herald, that he doesn’t see any glaring weaknesses on the team — including the injuryriddled bullpen, where Koji Uehara’s return would be a “plus,” as Dombrowski put it.
He did not offer the likelihood that another trade is coming, but there is an industry expectation the Sox are not done, especially after last night’s 4-2 loss to the Tigers at Fenway Park.
“I can tell you (yesterday) we’ve received five trade proposals that I hadn’t received before (yesterday) from other clubs calling me,” Dombrowski said. “So that’s why this time of year is very interesting. We also have some real good young players in our organization, so some people are looking for those players. I can say we’re not close to making any trades at this moment.”
The biggest trade news of the day came from the Yankees and Cubs, as the former sent closer Aroldis Chapman to the latter.
“Talking about Chapman, Chapman and (Craig) Kimbrel, they’re the elite-elite,” Dombrowski said. “Again, it’s amazing if you are working outside here in business and you have the law of supply and demand, it’s amazing how that correlates to many other aspects of life.”