Sox do nothing at deadline
Cora still has trust in his team
One day after Alex Cora told a group of reporters he’d bet a dollar that every contending team would upgrade at the trade deadline, the Red Sox manager insisted he wasn’t disappointed.
His team has shot back into playoff contention with a strong July despite a pitching staff that’s nursing a 5.19 ERA on the month and a tiring bullpen. The offense ranks No. 1 in the major leagues. And yet there was no help on the way. No reinforcements coming for the ’pen.
The trade deadline came and went without as much as a third-string catcher acquired.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski chose to do nothing.
“I’m not disappointed,” Cora said yesterday. “This is a team, a group that we trust. I’ve been saying all along that the group has to get better and yesterday we had a chance to win the game. We didn’t come through. Today is a new day. We have a chance to win the series. We’ve got to stay with that frame of mind. Just win series, keep moving, get better.”
Cora had made it clear he expected some action in the days leading up to the deadline. He had a different outlook afterward.
“We’re third in the division, we’re in the hunt of the wild card, at the end, it really doesn’t matter,” Cora said. “We’ve got to play better. We’ve got the best offensive team in the big leagues. We’ve got guys in the rotation who have done it before. They have to step up and we trust them. And we have guys in the bullpen that have to do better. That’s the bottom line.”
The bullpen is fine, Cora said.
“We’re comfortable with Brandon Workman and Matt Barnes, the way he’s throwing the ball,” he said. “Nathan Eovaldi yesterday, that was a big step for us. Darwinzon Hernandez threw the ball well. The other guys, they have to step up. Everybody knows it. And we have guys in Triple A, they’re working on their thing, they’re going to be a big part of what we’re going to accomplish the next two, three months.”
Cora didn’t take Dombrowski’s inactivity as a slight against his team.
Asked if he thinks his 5949 club had done enough to convince Dombrowski this team was worth investing more in, Cora said, “I think so. What we did last week, we went to Tampa and we won. We won the series against the Yankees. That’s not easy to do. And everyone knows talent-wise, we’re up there with everybody. We just have to do it on the field. We’ve seen flashes throughout the season. Last week was probably the most consistent week for this team, and we just got to keep playing good baseball throughout the weeks.”
Selling ideas
Did the Red Sox ever consider selling?
They were 11 games back after a brutal defeat in Baltimore July 21, and Dombrowski said he considered making trades in both directions.
“We never really talked about per se selling, when you talk about that,” he said. “But in the beginning of the week, our phone calls were more of the nature of, ‘we’re not sure where we’re going at this point.’ And then when you get to that point, you listen and you talk.”
He said the Sox fielded trade offers on their relievers.
“When you start getting to Barnes, you can’t believe how many phone calls I got about our bullpen pieces,” he said. “So people say you need bullpen, you cannot believe the number of clubs that called me about our bullpen guys. So it just gives you an idea almost everybody can get better in their bullpen.”
Priority Sale
Getting Chris Sale on track would appear to be the priority for this team.
He has a 4.26 ERA on the year and a 6.15 ERA in his last six starts, when he’s allowed an .837 OPS.
“We’re all concerned,” Dombrowski said. “But I think the most important part is when you have a good starting pitcher – we think he’s good – is that they’re healthy. And he is. And now we have to fix his mechanics to get through that. And he’s had a way of not being a consistent year, falling in and out of his mechanics. We work on it all the time. We’ve got all types of information. We need to get that right. We need to get him right. We need to get David Price right.”
Dombrowski never considered replacing any of the starters via trade.
“The reality is I know some guys haven’t performed,” he said. “But where are we going to get starting pitchers that are more talented than the group that we have? They’re very talented, we just need to pitch better in some cases.” . . .
Asked if the July 31 trade deadline was sufficient, especially now that there are no more waiver trades allowed in August, Dombrowski did not seem pleased.
“I never thought it was the right day under the rules,” he said. “Nobody ever asked me. I’ve never thought this was the right day. I’ve thought it should be later, personally, but nobody asked us.”