Red Sox kept core intact at trade deadline, ready to prove it was right move

New York Times

3 days ago

BOSTON — In the end, the Red Sox didn't trade Jarren Duran.
Or any of their big-league outfielders — or anyone off the big-league club, for that matter.
Friday marked a day of equal parts relief and reckoning for the Red Sox.
On one hand, the Red Sox only added a reliever and a backend starter as their rivals across the American League bulked up significantly. Whether the Red Sox added enough is yet to be answered.
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But on the other hand, the Red Sox described a sense of relief at keeping the core of a close-knit club together, one that beat Houston in a 2-1 walkoff win in the 10th inning Friday. The win moved the club to 60-51, a season-high nine games over .500. With a Toronto loss, the Red Sox are four games back of first place in the American League East and holding onto the second wild-card spot with 51 games to play.
'We're a pretty close group; this is probably the closest group I've been on since I've been here with the Red Sox,' said Rob Refsnyder, who signed with Boston in 2022. 'Our communication and guys just generally hanging out with each other. It's a good group. We're playing well.'
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow chose not to trade any of his four big-league outfielders, including Duran, Roman Anthony (owner of his first walk-off hit Friday), Wilyer Abreu or Ceddanne Rafaela.
Roman sending 'em home happy! pic.twitter.com/cPMVmFjFrc
— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 2, 2025
The Minnesota Twins were willing to discuss a trade of starter Joe Ryan, according to major-league sources, but only if the Red Sox included a big-league outfielder. Meanwhile, San Diego also pursued Duran in the days leading up to the deadline but was rebuffed.
So the team stayed intact.
'The way I take it is he has faith in us,' Duran said of Breslow. 'We're a really good offense to him. We're relentless, and I feel like that's kind of our thing. We've been doing a lot this year, have come from behind and having late-game wins. I'm just really proud of this group.'
Trading Duran, in particular, would have been a blow to the offense. After a slow start to the year, he hit .317 with a 1.093 OPS in July. But the fact that so many teams coveted him at the deadline showed his value. Would a frontline starter have fortified the club more down the stretch? Perhaps. But the Red Sox won't find out.
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'Not trading Jarren is a big boost for us just because of how much we really care for him,' Refsnyder said. 'He's the heart and soul of the team, and whenever he's playing well, we're all playing exceptionally well. I know he puts that pressure on himself. I can't imagine that position of just being a part of such big trade rumors, but he handled it really, really well. And I think we're all relieved that it's probably behind us.'
Refsnyder described a strange day Thursday, the first he could remember in his 10-year career where he wasn't playing a game on the day of the deadline. In fact, he, Trevor Story and manager Alex Cora were at Alex Bregman's house for the birthday party of Bregman's son, Knox.
Bregman, dressed up as Spiderman for the occasion, was glued to MLB Network, checking in on deals across the league in real time.
After the party, Cora headed to Fenway Park to sit in on the trade deadline negotiations, something he'd never done before.
'I just wanted to see how people work, how it all works. I've never been there,' Cora said. 'People freaking grind, man. I just saw part of it. They've been grinding for weeks. A lot of phone calls, a lot of moving parts, and it's crazy, to be honest with you. It was fun to watch. I didn't have to make decisions and all that, but it was a good learning experience.'
Cora noted the final hour, in which deals were made left and right across the league, played out similar to how it felt on social media.
'Very fast. Very fast. You've got (MLB) Network on and all that,' he said.
Would he and the team have wanted more reinforcements for the stretch? Sure. But they're maintaining a defiant stance that the players they have — the ones who have gotten them this far — are good enough.
'It's August 1, everything is in the past, just got to continue,' Cora said. 'We've got a shot to make something special here this year, in the wild card, in the division. You look at the Green Monster, we're in third place (four) games back, so we feel like we can compete with anybody, and we've got a real shot to win the division.'
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For the first time since 2021, the Red Sox were in possession of a wild-card spot at the deadline. That also happens to be the last year they made the postseason, falling off the map in each of the last three years over the final two months.
Cora vows this year will be different despite the few additions in comparison to the rest of the league.
'I think we got better,' he said. 'I think the team is a lot different than the last three years. We're more complete, we've pitched better, our bullpen is in a great place.'
Now it's time to find out.
(Photo of Roman Anthony and Jarren Duran: Brian Fluharty / Getty Images)