The Boston Red Sox find themselves in a fascinating position after a franchise-record-tying 15-game winning streak.
The entire vibe of the ballpark flipped on its head with real investment in a historic run. Boston went from 37-48 and out of contention to 52-48 and in control of an American League playoff spot. The surge also completely changed the conversation surrounding the trade deadline. The group originally looked like a prime seller with veteran pieces to ship out in Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray and Aroldis Chapman. Instead, those players will play meaningful roles in Boston’s mission to make consecutive postseason appearances for the first time in eight years.
Now in a position to buy, the state of the Red Sox farm system takes on even more importance, as the team must decide what packages could get deals across for impact additions. That reality makes for an interesting few weeks for Red Sox senior director of player development Brian Abraham, who has run the farm system through multiple notable prospect waves in recent seasons.
With less than two weeks to go until the Aug. 3 deadline, Abraham has a big job to do to keep young players on track.
“I think the biggest thing for us is just making sure players are continuing to focus on their work, the goals that they have ahead of them and be able to perform on the field during the games and be able to get the work in to get better pregame,” Abraham told me Thursday. “We very much focus on controlling what you can control. That’s not only on the field but off the field as well. So there are going to be conversations that happen internally, there will be rumors, there’ll be media, and I think making sure that we’re not focusing on the noise externally and really focusing on the job that we need to do, that the players need to do at end of the day, is front of mind and that’s the focus.”
“Obviously, there is a part of this game that players and, quite honestly, that a lot of the staff can’t control,” Abraham added. “So making sure we’re taking care of our business and worrying about that and if something happens, we’ll adjust accordingly and have the conversations we need to have.”
Boston will certainly need to dip into the prospect pool to get a deal done, though a surplus of young, MLB-ready pitching can play a role in negotiations as well. That makes for an unnerving period for young players who know that they could find themselves on the move. Abraham reiterated the commitment of keeping routines and understanding the personnel adjustments that come with this period of the season where high-leverage decisions are made that can spark postseason runs at the big-league level.
“The season is very fluid and you really need to focus on the game that you have that particular night and the same as in the minor leagues,” Abraham explained. “You need to focus on the work that’s being done that particular day. Try to control what you control and you know hopefully you’ll be able to stack wins and put yourself in a better position later in this month and as we get towards the trade deadline. Obviously, there are some decisions that need to be made at certain times that influence what happens to our roster for better or for worse, whether it be bringing guys in or sending guys out one way or another. I think we’ve realized the season is incredibly fluid. At the end of the day, you have to make decisions that are best for the organization in the short term and in the long term. I know, no matter what, the goal is to win a World Series championship every year and I know [Craig Breslow] and the leadership group will do their best to make sure that we’re working toward that goal.”
One name that would be a significant surprise to be dealt is Boston’s top prospect Franklin Arias. The 20-year-old found unexpected power this season with Double-A Portland where his 19 home runs in 75 games matched his previous career total. Arias slashed .319/.407/.581 with 18 HR and a .987 OPS entering Thursday, a run of offense more than deserving of a bump to Triple-A Worcester. Arias ascended up the rankings this year and MLB Pipeline lists him as baseball’s No. 7 overall prospect. Tommy Cassell of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette first reported Thursday night, later confirmed by MLB.com, that Boston had promoted Arias to Triple-A.
Here’s what Abraham said Thursday morning before the reported promotion.
“I think there’s definitely conversations pretty often about when the right time to send him up is,” Abraham explained. “There’s not an exact answer when that will be. It will definitely be at some point this season. I would say the consistency has been great. We really asked him to put on some good weight and add some strength so he can impact the baseball more. It’s really his ability to hone in on a swing decision, swing at the right pitches, pitches that he can drive and he’s done an incredible job of that and he’s taken advantage of pitches over the plate and and drove them to all fields quite frankly. Just continue to match the consistency that he’s brought offensively, defensively and on the base paths. He’s incredibly smart. He’s a fast learner. He works his butt off.”
Abraham continued: “Just continuing to stack those days so that when his number is called to come up here he’ll be ready. But pre-game things going on I don’t know if there’s a lot more we need to see, in a lot of ways, which is exciting, but at the same time I think there are smaller pieces that he can always improve again, continuing to hone in on those swing decisions, continue to be more consistent with the bat, impact wise and again, small more intricate things with his footwork and his plate discipline that we’ll continue to focus on.”
Abraham, in his role, can take significant pride in the style of how the Red Sox rattled off an unimaginable winning streak. Given the countless injuries on the roster, headlined by the prolonged absences of stars Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet, Boston heavily relied on the depth contributions from Triple-A with names such as Anthony Seigler and Tsung-Che Cheng to do a job.
“It’s been a ton of fun to watch. I think we go into spring training every year realizing that the twenty-six guys that leave for Boston to start the season are not gonna be the only twenty-six guys that end up making an impact on the big league roster throughout the season,” Abraham shared. “So whether it be High-A, Double-A, Triple-A, we make sure that our players know their name could be called at any time and being prepared and making sure that when you know (Chad Tracy) and (Craig Breslow) call their name, they’re ready to help make an impact at the big league level. That could be on defense, that could be base running, that could be offensively, on the mound. So there’s so many different ways you can make an impact and make sure our guys are prepared to do so and can help the team in any way to help get a W on the board.”
The Red Sox have several factors that play into the massive responsibilities that fall on Breslow’s shoulders leading up to the 6:00 p.m. hour on Aug. 3. Abraham’s phone will likely be one of the busiest in the organization in the coming days before a consequential turning point in this tale of two seasons.
