For much of this season, the Boston Red Sox were far from a position to make a splash at the trade deadline.
Boston was at the bottom of the American League East standings as recently as July 6. At that point, the team’s streak of eight consecutive series wins had just begun.
Now, the Red Sox open a three-game home series against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night on a 23-3 run — including a weekend sweep of the twice-reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers — and having made a major splash before Monday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline.
“If somebody comes, we’ll welcome them with open arms,” All-Star center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela said on Sunday of the team’s wait-and-see approach. “I don’t hope for nothing. … I’m really enjoying playing with my boys.”
The biggest prize of Monday’s haul for the Red Sox was three-time All-Star catcher Adley Rutschman. Acquiring the former No. 1 overall pick took parting with big-league backstop Carlos Narvaez and three of the organization’s top prospects.
The switch-hitting Rutschman, 28, is on the injured list for the third time this season with left wrist inflammation but was expected to begin a rehab assignment soon.
Boston also added outfielder Eli White from the Atlanta Braves and reliever Erik Miller from the San Francisco Giants, with infielder Marcelo Mayer going out in the latter trade.
“Over the last month-and-a-half or so, this team has demonstrated just an incredible resilience… and put itself firmly in the playoff picture,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said. “They deserve — and our fans deserve — the front office’s efforts to try and find ways to make (the team) better. … You can see a core that should be here for many years into the future.”
Under interim manager Chad Tracy, Boston’s ongoing, season-changing heater began against the Los Angeles Angels in July and continued in Chicago, where the White Sox had not lost three straight home games since April.
“We’ve been (playing really good baseball) for a long period of time that we continue to go about it the right way and we’re getting the same results,” Tracy said.
The White Sox haven’t played playoff baseball since 2021, but despite the previous sweep by the Red Sox, they find themselves in a playoff position with a three-game lead in the AL Central after winning four of their last five against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays.
A 9-1 Sunday win in Tampa completed a series victory with the help of three home runs. Former Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi hit his 12th of the season and second of the weekend.
“Any time you can win a series, it’s really good,” starting pitcher Anthony Kay said. “Taking two out of four from the Yankees and then two out of three (from the Rays), it shows where we’re at in the league.”
It has been quite a jump from setting a modern-day record with 121 losses less than two years ago.
Chicago has bolstered several areas of its roster in recent days, adding starter Luis Castillo from the Seattle Mariners on Sunday, and reliever Huascar Brazoban (New York Mets), outfielder Brenton Doyle (Colorado Rockies) and catcher Joey Bart (Atlanta Braves) on Monday.
“(We had) an opportunity to continue to build out this roster to give us a greater chance of making the playoffs and still set us up for future success,” White Sox general manager Chris Getz said. “The fun part about this part of the season when you’re looking at acquisitions, you can plug it into a projection system and playoff probabilities.”
Davis Martin (9-5, 3.62 ERA) will take the ball in the Boston series opener, seeking his first win since June 10. He has allowed four runs in back-to-back no-decisions against the Houston Astros and Yankees.
Martin is 1-1 with a 3.94 ERA in three career starts against the Red Sox, including a July 8 loss in Chicago (five runs in four innings).
The Red Sox are scheduled to start Patrick Sandoval (0-0, 3.32), who has made four starts this season after returning in July from Tommy John surgery. Sandoval is 0-3 with a 6.41 ERA in four career starts against the White Sox, including a 2-1 Boston win in Sandoval’s Red Sox debut July 9.
–Field Level Media
