MLB Trade Rumors: Boston Will Suffer the Consequences of Refusing to Add of

With Jacoby Ellsbury becoming the latest Boston outfielder to hit the disabled list, the Red Sox are left with very few options—and they're not doing anything to rectify the situation either.

If this isn't one of the worst way to respond to a 4-6 start, what is?

Boston is one season removed from the biggest collapse in MLB history. Over the last month of the 2011 season, the Red Sox looked like a team that just didn't care, and the front office seemed inexplicably baffled as to how the team got to that point.

During that humiliating season, one of the only players to show promising signs of life was Ellsbury, who garnered the Comeback Player of the Year award after hitting .321 with 32 homers, 105 RBI and 39 stolen bases. He even finished second in the MVP race during a season when his team failed to make the playoffs.

Since the conclusion of that season, the Red Sox have let the following people walk: general manager Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona and closer Jonathan Papelbon. They also lost John Lackey for the entire season due to injury.

They have replaced the general manager with his former assistant, the manager with a controversial headline-maker who hasn't coached in the big leagues since 2002 and the closer with a guy who will be on the disabled list until the All-Star break.

And yet, the deluge of bad news isn't even over. After all that, the Red Sox somehow continue to get worse.

By all indications, the Red Sox have utterly failed to get better after missing the postseason in the most embarrassing manner possible. Missing the playoffs in Boston is not an acceptable offense, and as such, management pledged to put a team on the field in 2012 that would be able to compete. This, it seems, is the Red Sox's version of a team that can compete: a 4-6 team without a closer, without its top run-producer and with a manager who interrupts a short-lived stretch of positivity by inexplicably calling out one of the team leaders for playing without fire.

Ellsbury's shoulder injury, which should keep him out for an undetermined yet "significant" amount of time, is only the latest blow. It was already bad enough when the team seemed remarkably unconcerned after letting their All-Star closer walk and replacing him with a guy who will miss at least three months of the season; now that they've lost one of the most crucial components of their offense and aren't even trying to replace him, you have to wonder: What are they thinking?

GM Ben Cherrington told the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo that he doesn't expect a team to make a good center fielder available this early in the season. Well, figure out something else, because with Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Ryan Kalish all on the disabled list, waiting and seeing just isn't good enough.

This team is supposed to be a playoff contender, and yet it's putting out a product that looks like it couldn't beat Triple-A Pawtucket. Maybe this would be a little more acceptable if Boston was coming off a successful 2011, but it isn't. It collapsed, and this is supposed to be the rebound team.

The Ellsbury injury should motivate Boston's management to start thinking about options that will improve the team, not keep it at just-under-.500 until the storm passes. If the Red Sox spend too much time waiting, they’ll end up right where they were at the end of last season.