Another MLB deadline day is in the books, and it will go down as another disappointing day for Craig Breslow and the Boston Red Sox.
After weeks of pumping up the team’s flexibility and a strong desire to go out and make an impact move before the deadline buzzer sounded, Breslow ended up bringing in a veteran reliever in Steven Matz and a No. 5 starter in Dustin May. Sure, both moves will help Boston’s pitching depth a bit, but neither will really move the team from playoff hopeful to serious contender.
There were rumblings of a late push for Twins starter Joe Ryan, but in the end Breslow came up short. How about a solid No. 2 in Arizona’s Merrill Kelly, a consistent veteran starter with postseason experience? Nope, he ended up in Texas and will pitch for a Rangers team chasing the Red Sox in the AL Wild Card race.
Breslow said the team was “uncomfortably aggressive” in offering up players at the deadline, but he couldn’t line up with other teams. And we know how important alignment is to these Boston Red Sox.
While the Red Sox made a pair of fringe moves, every other team around them got better. The Mariners added two big bats to their lineup over the last week. The Yankees bolstered their bullpen with a trio of moves. The Rangers added Kelly to a rotation already led by Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi.
“I understand the frustration and the disappointment because we’re all looking at the last week right now in terms of the trades that were made and weren’t made,” Breslow said after the deadline. “And there’s not a lot of sympathy for how hard we tried to get deals across the line, I understand that.”
Breslow isn’t getting any sympathy from miffed Red Sox fans, but he has gotten a smidgen from national pundits. Some were nice about Boston’s lackluster deadline when assigning their team grades, though many are not sugar-coating the team’s failure to add an impact player.
Here’s a roundup of how the national folks view Boston’s MLB trade deadline day.
Yahoo Sports: F
Since [the Rafael Devers trade], the Red Sox have shot up the standings and into a playoff spot. But their sleepy, lethargic deadline that failed to seriously address any of the flaws on the roster was a borderline insult to a fan base already fed up with Breslow’s robotic, bizarre and uninspiring style. Matz is fine; he’ll help the ‘pen. May is fine; he’ll add rotation depth.
Those two moves alone would’ve earned Boston a D, but then Breslow dropped an all-time fart of an explanation for his inaction. “I understand the frustration and disappointment … There’s not a lot of sympathy for how hard we tried to get deals across the line.” If Breslow is looking for sympathy from the famously unsympathetic Red Sox fan base? I don’t know. Dude might be good at his job, but he’s a PR disaster class right now.
CBS Sports: C-
Dustin May is a below-average starting pitcher (84 ERA+ and -0.4 WAR in 104 innings this season) and Steven Matz is a long reliever. That was it. No frontline starter, no big bat, no needle-mover in the late innings. It sounds like they were trying to make a bigger splash, but they didn’t.
Dustin May trade: C
May fits the back end of the Boston rotation but still leaves the Sox a starter short for an adequate postseason rotation, barring a renaissance from his former (and freshly current) teammate Walker Buehler. The good news is that May has made 18 starts this year; he had made 20 in the prior four seasons combined. Unfortunately, these 18 starts haven’t been as good as the ones he made in earlier years, especially when he was a promising young part of a title-winning staff in 2020.
Steven Matz trade: B+
(Blaze) Jordan is a third-rounder out of a Missouri high school, and he makes a ton of contact, and he’s still young enough (22) to where his power might still be developing. Our own Keith Law writes that he’ll show off 70-grade power in batting practice, but that he can’t replicate it in game situations. Considering that he had more walks than strikeouts in Double A before a promotion, a little more power could turn him into a future regular.
Dustin May trade: D
It’s not May’s fault that he isn’t Joe Ryan, but it still hurts for Red Sox fans that he’s all they got after reportedly making a late run at the Twins All-Star.
May is at least healthy this year after making single-digit appearances in 2021, 2022 and 2023 and then missing all of 2024, and he can definitely still spin the ball. Alas, the velocity on his fastball is diminished, and his 4.85 ERA is almost exactly where it should be.
He’ll eat some innings for Boston down the stretch, but then he’ll be a free agent this winter.
Steven Matz trade: C
After falling well short of expectations in his first three years in St. Louis, Matz has reclaimed some dignity as a reliever in 2025. He’s been especially lethal against lefties, holding them to a .179 average and .442 OPS.
It is no fault of his, however, that he’s an odd fit for a Boston bullpen that already had four left-handers in it. One or more of them could get bumped accordingly, but this feels like the Red Sox adding to a collection in lieu of addressing a real need.
Dustin May trade: C-
May was a key pitcher on the 2020 World Series championship team for the Dodgers, but pitched just 101 innings over the next four seasons before returning this year and posting a 4.85 ERA in 18 starts. As the ERA suggests, he hasn’t been too effective, with both a high home run rate and a high walk rate. He doesn’t throw as hard as he did back in 2020, and that shows up in how hard his sinker has been hit this season (.285 average and .633 slugging percentage).
May is heading into free agency, so this doesn’t even fit the idea of “let’s get him this season and maybe he’ll be better next year as he’s further removed from surgery.” He can join the rotation in place of Richard Fitts or even a mediocre Walker Buehler, or maybe he goes to the bullpen, where his fastball might play up a little better.
Steven Matz trade: C+
It’s been a decade since Matz broke in as part of the vaunted Mets’ rotation in the mid-2010s, and he has made the full journey from starter to mostly bullpen work. The Cardinals have used Matz as a five-or-six-out reliever for the most part, and that kind of length will help bridge the middle innings for Boston. Unless, of course, the Red Sox want to stretch out Matz as a No. 5 starter or swing pitcher. In recent seasons, Matz’s numbers have been much better working out of the bullpen.
Clutch Points: B-
The Boston Red Sox are 59-51, but they haven’t done much to help themselves out in a stacked American League East. After trading Rafael Devers away earlier this year, the only deadline additions Boston made were for Steven Matz and Dustin May. Although Boston has been hot since sending the talented Devers away, their lack of aggression at the deadline could come back to bite them.
Bob Nightengale has Boston in his “trade deadline losers” category.
Hey, weren’t the Red Sox supposed to do something? They promised. They were going to make this team a legitimate contender. Instead, the trade deadline came and went, and all they did was acquire struggling Dodgers starter Dustin May and swingman Steven Matz from the St. Louis Cardinals. It wasn’t nearly enough.
The Red Sox lead off Fansided’s deadline day “loser” category.
Craig Breslow promised Red Sox fans in the wake of the Rafael Devers trade that Boston would be buying and seemingly doing so aggressively. Apparently that meant trading for Steven Matz and Dustin May. Not exactly what fans had in mind, I fear.
While there was apparently a late push from the Red Sox to get Joe Ryan, Breslow couldn’t get the deal over the finish line. Now, the rotation and bullpen are marginally deeper but not significantly improved, there still isn’t a long-term answer at first base unless Kristian Campbell comes back up to the majors and rebounds, and Connor Wong is still the catcher. This team can still compete for a Wild Card spot, but this was an infuriating failure on Breslow and the Red Sox’ part.
Every other AL team around the Red Sox in the standings landed on the “Winner” list on Fansided.
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