Four years on, the 2022 trade deadline has become a very different conversation for the Red Sox. At the time, Boston sat in an awkward spot: two games back in the Wild Card race, a game over .500 on deadline day, but still buried in last place in the AL East. Chaim Bloom chose the middle path, neither pushing chips in nor fully tearing it down, and the results looked murky then and even worse in the moment after the season.
With hindsight, though, one move stands out above the rest: the Christian Vázquez deal. Boston sent its starting catcher to the Astros, with Vázquez headed for free agency after the season and coming off one of his best offensive years.
In return came Wilyer Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez, and that trade has aged extremely well for the Red Sox. Valdez lasted 125 games in Boston before being dealt to the Pirates in the 2024 offseason, but Abreu has become the real prize.
He’s now a two-time reigning Gold Glove winner in right field and keeps taking steps forward at the plate. On its own, that deal earns an A+.
Bloom also used the deadline to swap Jake Diekman for Reese McGuire. Diekman, signed earlier that offseason, had been solid enough with a 4.23 ERA in 44 games.
McGuire came back and immediately helped, posting nearly one bWAR in 36 games in 2022 while hitting over .300 with an OPS near .900. He stayed in Boston into the 2024 season and split time behind the plate with Connor Wong, though his bat fell off in 2023-24 and he became a replacement-level player with an OPS in the low .600s.
Still, it was a useful piece of business: a rental reliever turned into a controllable platoon catcher. That one gets a B-.
The Tommy Pham pickup, though, never really found its footing. Boston brought in the veteran outfielder from Cincinnati for a player to be named later after Pham had posted an OPS just shy of .700 and carried some postseason experience.
The Red Sox were trying to replace Jackie Bradley Jr., who had been struggling badly with an OPS under .600 before being DFA’d after Pham arrived. But Pham’s offense stayed about the same, and the defense cratered.
He finished at -4 Outs Above Average in left field and wound up below replacement level. Boston didn’t bring him back, and Nicholas Northcut - outside the Red Sox’s top 30 prospects at the time, per Soxprospects.com - was the player eventually sent to Cincinnati.
That move lands at C-.
Then there was the Eric Hosmer deal, which was one of Bloom’s more resourceful swings. Boston acquired Hosmer, plus prospects Max Ferguson and Corey Rosier, from the Padres for Jay Groome.
The key was salary: the Padres paid down most of Hosmer’s contract, leaving the Red Sox on the hook for only the minimum, while Boston also added more prospect depth. Groome, once a top 50 prospect in baseball in 2017 and a top five Red Sox prospect, never put it together in the organization and was still just 23 when San Diego took the chance.
He never reached the majors and is now pitching in independent baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs. Hosmer, meanwhile, barely got started in Boston before injury shut him down after 14 games.
Rosier remained in the system until 2025 and got as high as Triple-A before moving on to Mexico, while Ferguson is still in the Red Sox system and has spent time with Portland and Worcester this season. Because Hosmer got hurt and neither prospect has reached the big leagues, it’s mostly a wash, though the Padres covering nearly the entire contract nudges it to a C+.
Taken as a whole, the deadline was a failure in the short term. The Red Sox got no real impact from the players they added, and they missed the playoffs anyway.
Bloom also missed a chance to get under the luxury tax by not moving Nathan Eovaldi or JD Martinez, both of whom left in free agency that offseason. That alone drags the overall deadline down to an F, because it helped set the franchise back for a few years.
But Abreu’s emergence changes the story enough to lift the final grade by a letter.
In Other News...
Red Sox Made A Tough Roster Call At Shortstop
The Red Sox made a quiet but meaningful roster shift by adding Curtis Mead to the active roster and sending rookie infielder Tsung-Che Cheng to Triple-A Worcester. Cheng had spent about a month on the major league roster and, even with modest production at the plate, gave Boston the kind of steady defense it needed while the club sorted out shortstop.
Cheng handled the position cleanly, working 116 innings there without an error and giving the Red Sox a reliable glove in a spot that can expose inexperience fast. The move opens a path for Mead, but it does not necessarily close the book on Cheng, who could still find his way back later as a bench infielder if Boston needs another dependable option. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox May Finally Have A Real Answer At Catcher
With the trade deadline approaching, the Red Sox are still weighing ways to stabilize a catcher situation that has lingered as a roster question. One name in the mix is Minnesotas Ryan Jeffers, a rental bat who would give Boston a much different look at the position and, at least on paper, help address the offense-first side of the job while leaving room for Carlos Narvez to handle more of the defensive burden.
The appeal is obvious for a club trying to stay in the Wild Card picture, but the rest of the equation is murkier. Jeffers has been productive when healthy, yet he also missed two months with a hamate injury, and there is no assurance the Twins will even entertain moving him, particularly to a direct competitor in the American League race. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Just Hit A Trade Deadline Crossroads With Zach Neto
After dealing Connelly Early to Washington for Curtis Mead, the Red Sox are still looking for ways to keep adding before the deadline, and Los Angeles Angels slugger Zach Neto has emerged as one of the more intriguing names on their board. He makes sense as an offensive fit for Boston, which is part of why the interest has lingered, but the appeal comes with the usual deadline complication: a player who fits a need can still be priced beyond what a front office wants to pay.
Bostons challenge is deciding how far it is willing to go if it keeps pushing on Neto. The Red Sox have other ways to structure a deal, potentially using different prospects to keep their top young talent intact, but that only underscores the crossroads they are facing. For a club trying to balance immediate help with long-term depth, the question is not whether Neto belongs on the radar. It is whether the cost of getting him is the kind Boston can justify. [Read more 🡒]