It was a relatively quiet trade deadline for the Red Sox, as Dustin May and Steven Matz were the only additions brought onto the roster for the pennant race. However, the Sox had their eyes on plenty of bigger targets, including the team’s previously-reported pushes for the Twins’ Joe Ryan and the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara. WEEI’s Rob Bradford provides some details on those pursuits, saying that the Red Sox were willing to dig deep into the prospect depth to try and secure a deal.
“Anybody and everybody from the Sox’s minor league system” was available to some extent, Bradford writes. Boston offered multiple packages that included two of Jhostynxon Garcia, Payton Tolle, and Franklin Arias as the headliners, with other names also involved from the top ten names on the club’s prospect rankings. Since the Marlins and Twins didn’t seem to be prioritizing the addition of big league players, Red Sox officials saw Alcantara and Ryan as particularly good fits since Boston didn’t want to trade from its Major League roster.
A match didn’t happen, of course, and Bradford characterizes the talks with the Twins as somewhat one-sided on Boston’s part. “Ultimately, Minnesota never acted, not informing the Red Sox chief decision-makers what level of offer would be needed to pull off….a move for a controllable ace starting pitcher,” Bradford writes. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that the Twins actually did want some MLB-level talent, as Minnesota wanted either Jarren Duran or Wilyer Abreu in a Ryan trade package.
As much as the Twins’ deadline fire sale was about shedding payroll, Duran or Abreu are arbitration-controlled through the 2028 season. Obtaining a controllable starting outfielder would’ve been a sign that the Twins still want to return to competitive baseball as soon as 2026, and Thursday’s stunning set of moves wasn’t the first step of a rebuild process. The club’s other deadline moves saw multiple players with MLB experience obtained, including such names as Taj Bradley, Mick Abel, and James Outman.
Turning to the injury front, Nightengale writes that Marcelo Mayer could be facing a season-ending wrist surgery, as the rookie infielder’s “sprained wrist is more serious than the Red Sox initially envisioned.” Mayer was placed on the 10-day IL a little over a week ago and he recently received an injection in his wrist to help with the healing process.
Speaking with MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam and other reporters, Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow didn’t rule out the possibility of surgery. For now, the hope is that the injection “gives him the best chance to be back on the field this season. It’s a credit to him to try to do anything he can to get back.”
Mayer has hit .228/.272/.402 over his first 136 plate appearances in the Show. While not a standout performance, it isn’t unexpected for a player to need time to adjust to the majors, plus it helps that a healthy Mayer would be a luxury at this point for a crowded Red Sox infield. Now that Alex Bregman is back from the IL and Ceddanne Rafaela has moved into regular second-base duty, the team’s everyday lineup is pretty set, so Mayer might only be in line for a bench role if he is able to get back to action.
One player whose return seems a little more likely is Justin Slaten, though Breslow warned that “it’s hard to put a timetable on it given the topsy-turvy nature of the recovery to date.” Slaten hasn’t pitched since May 28 due to right shoulder inflammation, though as the reliever told Bradford and company, he was also dealing with a nerve issue related to his transverse bone.
That problem has now been corrected, and Slaten’s restarted throwing progression hit another checkpoint with a bullpen session on Saturday. The Sox will continue with a more gradual build-up and a minor league rehab assignment will surely be necessary given how much time Slaten has missed. If all goes well, Slaten feels he’ll be back by September, and ready to continue building on what is becoming an impressive resume. Slaten has a 3.09 ERA over 78 2/3 relief innings since making his MLB debut last season.
As a Marlins fan, the team that John Henry used to own, I will say with the greatest form of sarcasm, I’m shocked that a John Henry team is not going out of there way to make big additions after John Henry made sure to turn the team into a cash cow.
Seriously, who would expect different after the NHL rejected him because he couldn’t give a straight answer about how he would run the franchise he was seeking (if I’m correct, what turned to be the Tampa Bay Lightning); then, as soon as the ink was dry on his ownership of the Marlins that he achieved by making all sorts of promises, started to cry like a pauper about not being able to buy his own stadium, despite being given the free land and tax breaks to build on. Then, after he, Bud Selig, and Jeffrey Loria got together for that underhanded deal to switch ownerships, Henry miraculously found enough money to purchase the Red Sox for more money than it cost him to own the Marlins (which he already owned) and build his own stadium.
Seriously, with the utmost sarcasm, I’m shocked that a John Henry owned team is not going out of their way to add big-time talent when they have the revenue streams to do so, after he made sure to get some championships and turn the team into a cash cow. Kind of like what he expected would be the case in Miami, purchasing them not too long after they won the 97 championship.
Is anyone else sarcastically shocked that a John Henry owned team isn’t adding big-time talent after he turned his team into a cash cow?
MarlinsFan, Congratulations on your team, looking great for the lowest payroll in baseball. Your new manager down there should get votes for Manager of the Year. Hope you’re getting a few more folks out now to watch them now with their hot streak. Good stuff.
Yeah, I’m hoping there’s more support. The casual fans are starting to get hyped up down here.
And I’m hoping that the usual, switcheroo transplant fans start abandoning their current jerseys and pull their Marlins jerseys out the closets.
And for sure, if voting were today, McCullough is at least a finalist for NL Manager of the Year.
But since we’re on a Yankees board, I have to say, I just can’t believe the way that team, their broadcasters, and fans thought they had 3 automatic wins coming down here. They clearly have some poor media coverage in NY if they aren’t aware of the other teams playing well throughout MLB. The way the Marlins have been playing for weeks now, you have to beat them. Friday night was a clear message about that. The Marlins are not playing like a doormat.
Oops, I didn’t realize I had switched over to the Red Sox board.
Sorry Sox fans!
All good… what you did to NY this weekend, please and thank you…
Banned – There’s bandwagon fans with every team. You can’t imagine how many so-called Sox “fans” have suddenly come out of the woodwork, while the longtime diehards like myself have been here day in and day out through even the darkest periods in Red Sox history.
Ironically I’ll be seeing the Marlins in Fenway next weekend, other than then good luck to your team! I’ve gotten to speak to a few Marlins players in Jupiter, they are a good bunch of guys.
The same Yankees broadcasters that said Toronto “isn’t a first place team” as Toronto preceeded to sweep them in a 4 game series
Rsox – Wow, I didn’t hear that …. not surprised, their broadcasters are almost as bad as DO’B and Flemming.
I’m one of the very few here who said pre-season the Jays would surprise with all their talent, and also MLB Network said back then they have the best pitching in MLB.
I hate this take. Why would you waste your money on a bad product. If you’re favorite restaurant started selling rotten food would you keep giving them your money and then criticize people who came back when the food was good again.
Always found this to be the weirdest flex. If everyone kept coming and watching when they’re bad what incentive does ownership have to improve team. You should thank the casual for motivating ownership to improve.
N*4
100
“I stuck with the team” is just ownership propaganda to keep money flowing in when the team isn’t good.
Name – Not sure who you’re responding to, but I can answer your questions.
For the past several years, the Red Sox have willfully deceived Red Sox Nation with claims of full throttle spending and trade deadline improvements. Fans believed them, and therefore bought tickets …. probably 90% well in advance because Fenway is a huge tourist trap.
As for bandwagon fans, we are not talking about buying tickets …. we are talking about flooding this site and many others including social media, puffing out their chests and acting arrogant because *their* team (which they abandon every time they suck) is suddenly winning.
It kinda seems you don’t understand what the meaning of bandwagon is, which is fine ….. it basically means sticking with them only in the good times, and bailing on them during the bad times …. which is something diehards detest.
Juan – You think ownership has the power to force fans to stick with the team when they are bad? No, they don’t … unless you mean ownership uses lies and deceit to accomplish that, then you’d be correct ;O)
FPG
“You think ownership has the power to force fans to stick with the team when they are bad?”
No. I didn’t think they can “force” them. Of course not.
I do think that things like brand loyalty and other marketing techniques exist. Like “sticking with the product when the product isn’t very good is good, actually” for example.
Die hard baseball fanatics ride with their team do or die. Often, especially on the East Coast, these fans are connected to teams thru generations. Grandpa had season tickets, Dad then had season tickets tickets, etc etc. These younger generation of fans who are new to Fandom often don’t understand the loyalty factor. They often look at me strangely and think I am only acting exuberantly ecstatic over a win in August because I must have money on the game. Otherwise they don’t get the passion.
ISoaB
“I smoke Pall Mall’s because my great grandpappy smoked ’em. This makes me morally superior to people who vape and don’t have a favorite and just like whatever new flavors come out”.
It’s all just loyalty to a business.
Like N*4 implied, if you want to stick with a restaurant, band, team, brand that’s not putting out a good product, that’s your right. But it’s a bit ridiculous to think it’s superior than not doing so.
Juan – I agree teams will do whatever they can to generate revenue in down seasons, but I don’t think any team has ever acknowledged they won’t be good. The dishonest teams at least wouldn’t.
SOB – I totally agree!
It’s kinda like family …. you can get mad at them, be unhappy with them, disapprove of what they do, but you still stick with them because that’s just what you do.
I never said anything about one way of supporting a team is more superior than another. Loyalty to a sports team and sticking with them thru the trials and tribulations of a 162 game season and being emotionally invested in that team’s performance no matter what is an altogether completely different thing entirely from merely having a preference for Parliament cigarettes. Not in the same universe.
Henry is a lousy owner.
Henry has won the most World Series of any owner this century.
True… but other than that… he’s awful!!LOL!!!
Yeah the 4 WS championships and the numerous ballpark improvements over the past 23 years sure has sucked.
All of you Henry defenders, ask the NHL and South Florida baseball fans and the City of Miami about John Henry as an owner.
that seems silly since Henry only owned the Marlins for 3 years. wouldn’t the red sox be a better measuring stick since he’s owned them for over 20 years? you just sound like a bitter marlins fan to most people
Or a extremely intense hockey fan…
that makes sense olmtiant, i was questioning if they were angry about the way Henry sold the West Palm Beach Tropics before the Senior Profesional Baseball Association folded. Maybe Henry just hates Florida
Not to mention the 3 years Henry owned the team was between the Wayne Huizenga sell off after the 1997 WS, and before the 2003 WS winning team. His ownership of the Marlins saw them acquire most of the talent they used to win that 2003 WS. Not sure what in all that leads to him being reviled by Marlins fans.
All Marlins fans are bitter .
All you Marlin fans
Boo Hoo.
Henry has built a conglomerate and runs the club Luke such. As long as he sees opportunities like he successfully did arbitraging, he’ll direct that extra money that Sox and other baseball fans provide elsewhere.
Henry is the best owner in baseball and it is not even close.
You countered one extreme with another extreme. Good grief.
They literally just traded (and signed) Crochet and brought in Bregman this past offseason…
jd – Bregman is almost certainly opting out, which means the Sox gave him a $31M contract …. not that big a deal.
You do realize they just did a salary dump with Devers, right? The guy who had 3 hits, a homerun and 4 RBI within the past few hours?
Cheapness is based on payroll vs revenue, Red Sox have one of the cheapest ratios in MLB.
Fever, your blatant lie about Devers being a salary dump is getting old fast. It’s eminently clear that it was a dump of a player whose situation had become toxic. He has a superstar bat, but he isn’t a superstar overall player and he was becoming an outright cancer in the clubhouse.
PS The Yankees for quite a while under the Steinbrenner sons have had a relatively weak payroll vs revenue ratio – maybe you should do some research and understand that that isn’t indefensible over shorter periods of time. Very clearly, Boston has been pacing to spend only just short of the luxury tax, which keeps penalties reset so spending when it does happen can go a longer way. We’ll see whether or not they actually do that, and they should be criticized if they don’t, but it would have been dumb for a team in the midst of a non-push rework to spend into the tax. The other side of the coin is that they consistently spent as much as they could without unnecessarily triggering the tax; if they were all about dumping money, they could and should have gone lower than that.
Try fitting your arguments to the actual picture rather than a desired viewpoint. It does wonders.
Long – You are full of crap as usual. My blatant lie, eh? What kind of cretin are you falsely claiming I’m the only one calling it what it is, a salary dump.
Stop being so lazy and do a damn Google search if you really can’t grasp what the trade was all about.
“The Red Sox’s trade of Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants is widely considered a salary dump. The Red Sox moved Devers, along with a significant portion of his remaining contract, to the Giants, who will assume the financial obligations. This move allows the Red Sox to shed payroll, potentially freeing up resources for other roster moves or to stay under the luxury tax threshold.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown:
Salary Dump:
The primary motivation for the trade appears to be to get out from under Devers’ large contract, which has several years remaining.
Return:
The Red Sox received Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison, and two prospects in return for Devers, a haul that is considered underwhelming for a player of Devers’ caliber.
Ownership’s Role:
Some reports suggest that the Red Sox ownership may have had a mandate to reduce payroll, making the salary dump a priority according to reports on Sports Business Journal. ”
sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/06/20/red-…
And Chapman.
And I can say with the utmost sarcasm that I wish our owner was as good as yours, and how much I admire the Marlins’ success, and how bad I feel about only having 4 WSCs in the past 20 years. Woe is me.
OT: Thank you Boston for sweeping the ‘Stros….wasn’t too difficult, was it?
Banned – On behalf of Red Sox Nation, we are all sarcastically shocked.
As Kanye would say, John Henry doesn’t care about w…..inning. He’s got his 8 rings, he has no emotional ties to the Red Sox (he’s always been a Cardinals fan), and all he cares about is adding to the FSG portfolio and completing Fenway Corners.
No offense man, but your thesis doesn’t fit the evidence. While you can fit the Red Sox of the last 5 years into those claims, there are still almost TWO decades of ownership before that that involved adding the likes of Schilling and Beckett and Sale and Gonzalez in trades and Crawford and Lackey and Price and Story as free agents. Until very recently – which has only involved treading spending water JUST SHORT of the luxury tax, which is prudent when you’re waiting for your next push opportunity – Boston was consistently one of the top payroll teams, and the only one of the top spenders that didn’t enjoy a payroll advantage over every other team in its division.
On top of that and the four championships that came with it, they sacrificed the opportunity to build a new ballpark with real luxury boxes and more seating to preserve Fenway Park. It wasn’t an entirely altruistic move, but it doesn’t align with money being the overwhelming priority.
None of this means he didn’t screw over the Marlins, but that’s a different deal.
“after he made sure to get some championships ”
Yeah, he’s so sneaky, making sure The Red Sox won the most championships this decade before he started his diabolical plan. What a rascal.
With news on Mayer, as many of us thought, these things ( crowded outfield) have a way of working themselves out… Seems price for Ryan was a Kings ransom and then some… But two or 3 of the above mentioned AND either Duran or Wyler would have been extremely steep.. My gut, they had a pretty good idea MM is done for year.. Come on Dustin.. become this years Nate Evoldi for us!!!
Dustin May more likely this year’s version of Danny Bonaduce than Eovaldi.
He could be last years Walker buehler. Great in the playoffs after stinking it up all year
I don’t want to trade the Password or Tolle at all right now.
olm – When the Sox made the announcement that none of their 4 outfielders would be traded, I immediately said that means Mayer is gonna be out for a while but it won’t be announced until shortly after the trade deadline. And I had been pushing for Rafaela to play 2B since ST, even though so many here said “No way, Rafaela stays in CF”.
So does anyone know why Gio replaced May today?
I heard it’s because they want to give him a little more time to adjust.
They mentioned the long move from West Coast to East Coast and the number of games he’s pitched I think is getting past career high or something like that.
They just wanna give him a week to settle in and Sort of out of courtesy but also in consideration of arm protection.
Wilyer Abreu for Ryan woulda been pretty fair both sides
Chandler… as much as I love Wilyer I would have carried him on my back to Minnesota from Boston straight up for Ryan… And would have walked from Chicago to Boston to do it…
olm – Same here, I love Abreu but he wouldn’t be enough for Ryan.
The Twins, like most all MLB teams, simply don’t like dealing with the robotic tunnel-visioned Breslow. He almost always lowballs, whether it be free agents or trades.
Like Breslow shockingly admitted, teams don’t like his players.
It probably would have been Abreu, Garcia and one or two other minor leaguers.
I remember someone here was complaining about the Dodgers and/or Red Sox prospects being overrated so i asked AI what are the top 5 and bottom 5 teams in terms of farmhands (specifically IFA, UDFA, and draftees) to play a major league game in 2024 (last season with full data)
Top 5: 1) TB Rays 2) LA Dodgers 3) Minny Twins 4) Clev Guardians/Indians (including players drafted/signed under either team name) 5) ATL Braves
Bottom 5 (worst first): 1) CHI White Sox 2) Colorado Rox 3) Miami Marlins 4) LA Angels 5) Oakland A’s
take these rankings with a grain of salt and this includes players who played for any ML team but the AI pointed out that with how low the Dodgers draft and how much theyre penalized for spending they exceed expected value more than any team
As much as I dislike Henry and wasn’t excited about Boston’s lack of quality additions at the deadline, I am VERY glad they didn’t get Alcantra or Ryan if that was the asking price. Sox have their top 3 playoff starters and a terrific lineup against both lefties and righties; just need a few decent outings from the former Dodgers guys to ensure they get there!
Redsox organization is brilliant. 4 WS since 04 and u basement Gms are smarter. Boy if we only had Devers 🤮🤮
Boston has done an excellent job at identifying and acquiring young talent then NOT TRADING THEM AWAY! Despite Sox fans threatening a hanging lol
Um, they’re 3 games out of 1st.
Calm down. Breathe. Enjoy.
Good lord.
Fan since 1963, when Y A Z won his first batting title. The last 25 years, absolutely NOTHING to complain about.
Hayzee I agree big time… except for one DFA a couple of years ago…LOL!!!
hayzee – I respect your opinion, even though it makes Red Sox Nation LOL ;O)
whyhayzee, I hear you 100%. Fan since 78. Started off on the right foot but then the 80s and 90s were horrible.
Good thing was they always went for it in the off-season and signed guys and spent money. There was always hope every spring.
And of course, the four championships (sorry fever) made everything better. We’re kind of overdue now and need a fresh banner in a huge way. Coming up to seven or eight years and that’s too long for a spoiled fan such as I.
hayzee – I agree! This is probably the high point of their season thus far, so why do so-called “fans” have to act so arrogant every time the Sox go on a win streak? Enjoy today’s win, enjoy the win streak, and keep hoping for the best.
It’s dumb comments like “We’ve got 4 WS titles” that makes so many others hate Red Sox Nation, and it also shows complete ignorance because we all know damn well Breslow had nothing to do with putting together those championship teams.
Rick knows that I’m sure, he knows Lucchino and Dombrowski (with help from Duquette) are the men most responsible for those 4 titles and he knows damn well they are gone. He also knows the Sox have been cheap as hell since the 2020 season and have basically sucked since 2019 with the exception of Covid 2021. He’s just trolling as usual. LOL
Hint: Arias is the most overrated prospect in the league and “password” is simply a product of media hype.
Arias is a shortstop on a team that doesn’t need a shortstop. My guess is the Sox will shop him and Duran (unfortunately) in the off-season.
Arias is 19 years old. By the time he’s up, they’ll need a shortstop.
“the most overrated prospect in the league”
Oh? So you’re an expert on all MLB prospects you enormous troll?
Who are the second through tenth overrated prospects? I know you keep a list.
Hint? How about Anthony.., is he overrated? I think he came up in the Sox system?
Abrue? Rafaella? Bello? Overrated too?
Your username is an oxymoron. Better one would be
“some younger prospects in baseball are overrated, but you never know because they’re working hard and things could change with a little coaching.”