Craig Breslow’s Red Sox comments make absolutely no sense ahead of trade deadline

Craig Breslow’s Red Sox comments make absolutely no sense ahead of trade deadline originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Boston Red Sox have to be very careful with every move they make over the next few months. 

There is definitely a sense that the Red Sox could go out and make a few trades, whether that means moving on from players on the roster or bringing others in. The Red Sox are in one of those positions where they should buy and sell some, as long as they’re buying pieces that can help them in the long term. 

Moving on from guys like Jarren Duran and Aroldis Chapman would also make a lot of sense, as Duran has been a trade candidate for multiple years now, and Chapman is only getting older.

However, what Craig Breslow recently said seems a bit problematic, as it sounds like he’s still trying to win this year. 

It’s not out of the picture for the Red Sox to compete for a playoff spot, as we’ve seen crazier things happen, but he needs to be very careful when trying to make the big move if they have a short-term view, as the Red Sox are 27-37 and things don’t look to be getting any better anytime in the near future.

“I think early is probably the right word,” Breslow said on Friday. “(We’re) having a lot of conversations, a lot of discussions, and I think it’s been kind of true industry-wide. 

“But there are a lot of teams that probably feel pretty similar to us, which is to say that they have confidence in their rosters, they know they’re not playing as well as they’re capable of, and really, nobody is kind of putting the postseason out of reach. So there are a bunch of teams that are in it right now and are thinking along the same lines as we are.”

In Breslow’s defense, the American League is definitely wide open, in that teams can compete if they make the necessary moves at the trade deadline. The problem for the Red Sox is that they’re already 11.5 games back in the American League East and aren’t exactly in the wild-card picture, either.

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