Red Sox Trade Push Escalates With Ownership Directly Involved

The Boston Red Sox are trying to make a move. But will they find a suitor on the other side? That's the question.

Nov 7, 2023; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Boston Red Six chief baseball officer Craig Breslow speaks to the media during the MLB General Manager's Meetings at Omni Scottsdale Resort & Spa. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox aren't looking to sell right now, to say the least.

Over the last week, ESPN's Buster Olney has reported that Boston is "aggressively" looking to add a right-handed bat. He initially made the point on the Just Baseball Show. Then, he followed up with a tweet doubling down and reported that Boston is willing to take on money as well.

On Monday, Olney joined WEEI and shed some more light on his reporting and indicated that the Red Sox are getting so aggressive to make a move to the point that a member of the club's ownership has called around to try to "grease the skids."

Boston Is Trying To Add

Dec 9, 2024; Dallas, TX, USA; Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow speaks with the media at the Hilton Anatole during the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

"The Red Sox are looking aggressively and the Red Sox are kind of on their own in that regard," Olney said. "Then, I heard last week from a couple of teams that they were signalling that they were willing to take on money. Today I talked with someone with another team who told me that it's to the degree that the Red Sox ownership has gotten involved. I have not confirmed the name of the owner ... but an owner, one of the Red Sox ownership group, is actually calling around and trying to grease the skids to something to add a right-handed bat.

"I've gotten two reactions from all of this from other teams. One was which is, 'Why didn't you just offer Alex Bregman more money in the wintertime?' And the second thing was like, 'Man, they are desperate.'"

On thing that is interesting is that this comes one week after Red Sox legend David Ortiz noted that owner John Henry is "worried" about the club's "situation more than what people think he is."

For all of the noise out there about various guys Boston could trade away in a sell-off, it can be ignored for now. If Red Sox ownership is involved, then the club clearly is trying to make a splash on the sooner side and right the ship. Despite the fact that the Red Sox are nine games below .500, it's not too hard to see why the club still thinks it can turn things around this season. Boston has the pitching to compete with anyone and Garrett Crochet is going to return at some point. Roman Anthony is going to return at some point and help this offense.

On top of this, the American League is having a bad year overall. So far this season, the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians have been the only clear contenders in the American League. And while this is the case, the Rays are 3-7 in their last 10 games, the Guardians are 5-5 in their last 10 games, and the Yankees just lost Aaron Judge for a while. The American League is wide open.