After a strong stretch of games, the Boston Red Sox are beginning to look more and more like a postseason team as they settle into a playoff spot past the halfway point of the season.
Despite a frightening loss Wednesday night to the Oakland Athletics — one of the worst teams in baseball — where Boston’s playoff odds dropped from over 50% to 43.9%, according to FanGraphs, there’s still growing hope about the Sox ending a postseason dry spell.
But the recent spike in optimism hasn’t yet been reflected in a definitive statement from the Red Sox front office on which ‘lane’ they’ll pick at the deadline.
Sure, there’s the argument that the team doesn’t want to tip its hand to rival front offices, but couldn’t they give Red Sox Nation just a little morsel of information?
On Thursday’s Front Office Report on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show, team president and CEO Sam Kennedy kept his cards close to the chest. Listen to the full segment above.
“We’ve got to keep winning series,” Kennedy said. “[We’ve] got a big one tonight, we’ve got the [Kansas City] Royals coming in, Dodgers, Rockies, Yankees before we get to the deadline. Hopefully we can keep attacking here and make it kind of an easy decision.”
Kennedy stressed how “excited” the front office is about the on-field product lately.
"It’s been really enjoyable to watch," he said.
In light of Red Sox manager Alex Cora’s continued comments suggesting that he wants the team to be buyers at the deadline, Hill asked if Kennedy’s private conversations with Cora have mirrored his public statements.
“Alex said it really well yesterday, as he typically does: You’re never going to hear a manager or a coaching staff or players talk about trading players away or selling at the deadline,” Kennedy said. “There’s a very distinct belief in these guys that are in these positions that we can do something special.”
Kennedy highlighted that the relationship between him, Cora, and president of baseball operations Craig Breslow had existed in some form since 2007 when Cora and Breslow were players.
“So there's a great relationship, there’s been a lot of open and honest and candid conversations,” he said.
When asked by Courtney Cox whether he worried the players would lose enthusiasm after the deadline if the team didn’t make any major moves, Kennedy acknowledged he was worried, saying, “Courtney, we worry about everything here. I worry about everything.”
This still doesn’t mean that the team will buy at the deadline or at least publicly declare their position.
“You never want to make any sort of public promises or bold declarative statements around specifics,” Kennedy said, “because what I’ve seen in baseball going back to the early 1990s is the trade deadline is a wacky sort of crazy time with a lot of frenetic activity.”
When asked what the team would look to improve upon if they chose to add at the deadline, Kennedy said pitching would always be a focus, saying, “You can never have enough.”
“The game changes when you get into the postseason. Hopefully that’s where we’re headed, and you really can never have enough pitching. That’s always a priority,” he said.
When Chris Curtis asked, tongue-in-cheek, whether Breslow had license to go “full throttle” at the deadline, referring to Tom Werner’s infamous gaffe from this offseason, Kennedy responded similarly.
“Any other questions, guys?”
The Red Sox will look to grab a series win Thursday night in a rubber-game matchup at home against the Oakland Athletics.
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