As Red Sox aim to prove ‘reason to buy in’ at trade deadline, weekends like theirs in DC matter

Alex Cora's Red Sox have seven games to go before the All-Star break. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)AP

Anyone who dons a big league uniform will tell you that every game played over a 162-game season is just as important as the rest. On paper, that’s true, of course — unless you’re a club who finds itself in the middle of the pack come early July.

The Red Sox, at 46-45, once again find themselves on the buy/sell, “pick a lane” line that has become all-too-familiar to them over the last four Julys. Craig Breslow has repeatedly said he plans to add to his team, even after trading Rafael Devers away, but anyone paying attention knows it’s not that simple. By the time the final week of the month rolls around, Breslow must once again decide whether his team is one worth investing in.

That’s why series like the one the Red Sox just had against a bad Nationals team — and the one that awaits them against a historically putrid Rockies team starting Monday — matter so much. The Red Sox control their own destiny but the scheduling gods, at least for a six-day stretch made that destiny a little bit easier. So far, so good — after a sweep over Washington in which Boston outscored its opponent 27-9 in three games.

"I’ve been on teams that have bought and I’ve been on teams that have sold and this time of year, it’s really huge for that,“ said All-Star lefty Garrett Crochet. ”You just want to do as good of a job as you can as a clubhouse and as a unit to make sure that ownership knows there’s a reason to buy in. I think right now we’re giving them plenty of reasons."

A Red Sox team that has appeared allergic to momentum all season has followed a six-game skid a week after the Devers trade with a solid stretch, winning six of eight against Toronto and Cincinnati. In that stretch, Boston has scored 67 runs, which is their most in an eight-game period since 2022. Their 67 runs, 98 hits and 65 RBIs lead all of baseball since June 28.

Wednesday night’s ugly loss to the Reds, in which season-long issues reared their ugly heads once again, left a bad taste in the mouth of the Sox as they departed for Fourth of July weekend in D.C. But things turned around fast with back-to-back blowout wins on Friday and Saturday and a grindy victory on Sunday. Facing a Nationals team that entered the series 13 games under .500 — and left for a road trip Sunday night with both their manager and general manager having been fired after the game — the Red Sox simply took care of business. That’s no small thing this time of year.

“It’s the big leagues. It doesn’t matter,” said manager Alex Cora. “They grinded throughout the last two games and it’s not guaranteed to win games.”

“It’s important (to sweep). We’ve been playing well for a while... Swinging the bat well. We’ve just got to continue.”

One doesn’t have to look at another franchise or another era in Red Sox history to see the importance of early July. In 2022, the Sox limped into the All-Star break (and lost ace Chris Sale) before awkwardly trying to toe the buy/sell line in a decision that rocked the clubhouse. Just last year, a 9-3 start to July that pushed the Sox to 10 games under .500 caused Breslow to pick a lane, as promised and buy. Those trades, of course, were minor in nature and didn’t work out. But they still were at least a nominal attempt to improve.

The 2025 version of the Red Sox, who certainly entered the year with higher expectations than a year ago, are not where they want to be with a week to go before the break. They are 2 ½ games out of a Wild Card spot, possess just a 25% chance to make the postseason (per FanGraphs) and are once again part of the American League’s vast middle.

Organizations, as Breslow said a year ago, don’t often benefit from standing pat — or trying to straddle the fence — at the trade deadline, one of few times each year when front offices can meaningfully alter both their short-term and long-term outlooks. In that vein, the next few weeks should be meaningful for Breslow’s group. An encouraging run coinciding with the healthy returns of Alex Bregman and Masataka Yoshida could force Breslow to pursue a big bat, rotation depth and some bullpen arms. A losing streak (and the decreasing playoff odds that come with it) could force the Sox to take a long, hard look at trading first-half stars like Aroldis Chapman, Justin Wilson, Rob Refsnyder and Lucas Giolito — or even someone with longer control like Jarren Duran.

Weekends like the one the Sox just had at Nationals Park will help tip the scales toward the more favorable of those outcomes. The team, rightly, always prioritizes winning series. But with inferior clubs in the other dugout this week, anything outside of sweeps would feel like a small failure.

“I read something today that it would be smart for the Red Sox to win games,” Cora said. “We’re in the smart business every day. We try to win every day."

The Rockies, who will await the Sox at Fenway when they arrive home, are 21-69, which is the worst record in all of baseball by a nine-game margin. The Red Sox will send Richard Fitts, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito to the mound against them. A sweep — again, a greedy ask under normal circumstances but a reasonable expectation in this case — would vault Boston to four games over .500 for the first time all season.

Things will get tougher with the upstart Rays (four games) coming to town before the All-Star break and a gauntlet of three of the five best teams in baseball — at the Cubs, at the Phillies and home against the Dodgers — awaiting Boston between July 18-27. Considering that challenge, the Red Sox would be wise to string together a great week — not just a good one — and truly put pressure on Breslow to buy once again.

“All the games matter in the end,” Crochet said. “A lot of playoff races can be decided by one game. Obviously, we’ve seen it happen before. To have a series like this, especially going into the break, we’re just trying to chip away as much as possible.

“The whole season, our eyes have been set on the postseason... We feel like we have a really good shot at it and that we have the team to do it with.”