Which direction will Red Sox take?
Going to a 12-team bracket for the postseason in 2022 did its job of creating more excitement in September for some teams that would have otherwise been out of contention.
But it also served to turn the trade deadline into a staring contest.
This year, there were 22 teams within seven games of a playoff berth, going into the weekend. Of the eight teams out of contention, there are only a handful of difference-makers among players who could be traded. This could be a deadline where buyers make deals with buyers to find small improvements.
The Red Sox, obviously, need rotation help and that won’t be easy to acquire with so many other teams after starters. It’s also hard to imagine Chaim Bloom giving up valuable prospects to chase what could well be a best-of-three wild-card series with every game on the road.
But there are other ways the Sox can improve around the edges:
R Trading Adam Duvall would open more playing time for Jarren Duran and prepare him for a future when he doesn’t sit against lefties.
■ Trade or release Kiké Hernández to clear up another roster logjam. With Trevor Story on his way back, the Sox have Christian Arroyo and Yu Chang on the roster as middle infielders with versatile Pablo Reyes ready to return. They don’t need four middle infielders, never mind five.
Arroyo, Chang, and Reyes are all out of options. Hernández is having the worst season of his career and is unlikely to be back next season. At least one of them has to go, and it might as well be him at this point.
■ The Sox don’t need all six lefty relievers they’re carrying now. They should use the deadline to balance their bullpen.
■ Find a backup catcher. Reese McGuire is on his way back from an oblique injury, so maybe this issue takes care of itself. But McGuire has a .636 OPS the last four seasons with five home runs. They should be able to do better.
Connor Wong has caught the fourthmost innings in the majors since June 1. Through Friday, he’s started all but five games since McGuire went on the IL June 22. Wong is going to get worn down at this rate. R If the Sox drop further out of the wild-card race, they should give serious consideration to dealing James Paxton.
Paxton turns 35 in November, will be a free agent and has dealt with injuries since 2020. The Sox could take advantage of the market by trading him. R With Story, Chris Sale, and John Schreiber on the 60-day injured list, spots on the 40-man roster will be at a premium within a few weeks. The Sox are at 39 now and will need to drop some players. Better to do that via trades now than lose players for nothing later.
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
■ Brayan Bello is 1-5 with a 6.57
ERA and 1.78 WHIP in nine career days games. The righthander is 8-9 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.32 WHIP over 20 night games. That’s enough of a gap where somebody might want to remind the 24-year-old of the merits of getting to bed at a reasonable time.
As Lenny DiNardo mentioned on NESN, it’s incumbent on a starting pitcher to develop a routine for day games that allows you to be sharp.
■ Noah Song is six games into his rehab assignment with the Phillies and hit 93 miles per hour in his last game in Double A. Considering he went three years not pitching, that’s not too bad.
Philadelphia has until Thursday to put Song on its major league roster or place him on waivers. If he clears waivers, Song would then be offered back to the Red Sox. Phillies officials believe Song would not clear, that some rebuilding team would take a shot on him.
Perhaps protecting Song from the Rule 5 Draft didn’t make sense. But neither did clinging to Kaleb Ort, who has put 91 runners on base in 51„ career innings.
■ Call this wishful thinking, perhaps. But Scott Rolen’s induction into the Hall of Fame this weekend should improve Dwight Evans’s chances of getting a plaque in Cooperstown.
Rolen’s defense was a big part of his case for Cooperstown. He was an eighttime Gold Glove winner with a career .855 OPS over 17 seasons. Evans was an eight-time Glove winner with an .840 OPS over 20 seasons.
Rolen had 70.1 bWAR; Evans had 67.2.
That Rolen was voted in by the BBWAA will hopefully influence the Contemporary Baseball Committee when Evans is considered again.
■ Yu Chang set a record for games by a player born in Taiwan on Wednesday. It was his 221st game, one more than righthander Wei-Yin Chen (2012-19).
Chang joins a club that includes such notable players as Xander Bogaerts (Aruba), Rod Carew (Panama), Didi Gregorius (Netherlands), Andruw Jones (Curaçao), Rafael Palmeiro (Cuba), Albert Pujols (Dominican Republic), Edgar Renteria (Colombia), Aurelio Rodriguez (Mexico), Ichiro Suzuki (Japan), Omar Vizquel (Venezuela), and Joey Votto (Canada).
■ Gavin Casas, Triston’s younger brother, was one of the hottest hitters in college baseball early in the season. He finished the year hitting .259 with a .976 OPS, 19 homers, and 56 RBIs over 61 games and was MVP of the Columbia regional.
The younger Casas withdrew his name from the draft to return to South Carolina for his senior season. He was projected as roughly a 10th-round pick. According to Triston, his brother will spend the summer working out and preparing for next season.