The Red Sox have turned their own trade deadline into a moving target.
A team that looked buried not long ago is suddenly forcing Boston’s front office to think twice. The Sox closed a 9-0 road trip on Sunday with a comeback win over the Mets, and that surge has carried them from 14 games under .500 on June 24 to 46-48 at the All-Star break. They now sit just half a game behind the Mariners and Twins for the final wild card spot in a weak American League.
That kind of run changes the conversation fast. What had looked like a straightforward sell-off has become a much messier call, and the players know the only way to keep that from tilting back the other direction is to keep winning.
Caleb Durbin, who was traded just five months ago, put it plainly as the break began. “We’re not thinking about that stuff,” Durbin said, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.
“That’s not in our hands. If we were thinking about that stuff, our mind would be on the wrong thing, I think.
We’re just focused on playing good baseball.”
Garrett Whitlock echoed the same message, while also acknowledging how much damage Boston’s first three months did to its own position.
"It’s one of those things where we’re all happy about it, but we know when we get back, we’ve got more work to do," Whitlock said, per Cotillo. “It’s our own fault for digging ourselves in the hole that we did, so we can’t just rest on, ‘OK, we had a nice little run.’”
A nine-game winning streak in July has given the Red Sox a real jolt, but it has not erased the bigger picture. A full teardown feels harder to imagine now, yet Boston’s players have not done enough to assume they’ve already changed Craig Breslow’s mind. The next 2 1/2 weeks will still matter.
In Other News...
Red Sox Just Took A Fascinating Gamble On A Huge Upside Arm
The Red Sox used a late pick on a classic upside play, taking a towering high school right-hander from Iowa with the 304th overall selection. At 6-foot-7, he fits the kind of arm that can make a draft room stop and look twice, especially when the raw ingredients are already drawing attention from scouts who see real pitchability potential if the rest of the package comes along.
Boston is betting on projection here as much as present-day polish, and that is never a small leap with a prep pitcher. The appeal is obvious, but so are the questions around his mechanics, his physical growth, and how much refinement will be needed before the stuff can fully play, which is why this kind of pick always feels equal parts intriguing and unfinished. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox 2026 Draft Class Is Complete After 20 More Picks
The Red Sox have finished putting together their 2026 draft class, adding 20 more picks to round out a group that now spans the full set of rounds, including compensatory selections. Bostons early work set the tone for the class, starting with Jack Schaffner out of North Carolina and then continuing with another player from the same program before the board opened up to a broader mix of schools and positions.
For the organization, the real work now shifts from draft room to development, with each of those selections headed into the minor leagues to begin the long climb toward Fenway Park. The full list gives Boston a fresh wave of talent to sort through, but as always with a draft class, the bigger question is which of these players can turn promise into a future role in the majors. [Read more 🡒]
Red Sox Suddenly Have A Bigger Connelly Early Concern Than Expected
Connelly Early has been on the Red Soxs 15-day injured list since July 1 because of inflammation in his throwing elbow, and the early worry around the rookie has not really eased. The encouraging part is that the issue has been checked out, but Boston is still waiting for the discomfort to calm down before he can even get back to the basic step of throwing again.
For a club already trying to piece together its pitching depth, that leaves Early in a frustrating holding pattern and the Red Sox with one more rotation question than they expected to be carrying right now. The team can only monitor his progress for the moment, while other rehab situations around the league continue to unfold, but for Boston the immediate concern is simply how long this elbow issue keeps him from moving forward. [Read more 🡒]