Red Sox Trading for Adley Rutschman, Dealing Marcelo Mayer Explained by Craig Breslow

The Boston Red Sox went from likely seller to headliner buyer ahead of Monday's MLB trade deadline in large part because of their recent run of play, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow didn't wait long to explain his rationale behind his two biggest moves.

"We didn't want to go through a deadline where we kind of just rearranged the chairs, but didn't actually get better and introduce the possibility of messing with the culture and the environment," Breslow told reporters when discussing the acquisition of catcher Adley Rutschman from the Baltimore Orioles. 

"We were aggressive in bringing players in, and we were positioning ourselves to reach our objective, which is to try and win a World Series."

Boston sent pitchers Anthony Eyanson and Kyson Witherspoon, outfielder Enddy Azocar, catcher Carlos Narvaez and a player to be named later to Baltimore for Rutschman and Jake Rogers.

It was quite the cost, as Eyanson, Azocar and Witherspoon were three highly regarded prospects within the team's system.

Still, Narvaez and Connor Wong have struggled offensively from the catcher position throughout the season. Rutschman, on the other hand, was an All-Star this season and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting in 2023.

At his best, he is someone who can hit for average and power while providing more offensive spark to a Boston lineup that will not have shortstop Marcelo Mayer after he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for relief pitcher Erik Miller.

Mayer was the fourth pick of the 2021 draft but never lived up to expectations with the Red Sox thanks in part to injuries.

"In no way is this [trade] an indictment of Marcelo," Breslow said. "In some ways, it's probably a credit to the player development group and the organization that we were able to make this trade and still feel like we've got players in-house or who can fill a major league shortstop role.

"[Mayer] was a really big part of this organization, someone that was looked upon to be part of a core. And I still think that's going to happen. It's going to happen with the San Francisco Giants at this point, but he's an incredibly talented player."

That Boston was aggressive comes as no surprise, as it is 23-3 in its last 26 games and now in playoff position after a poor start to the campaign.

"Over the last month and a half or so, this team has demonstrated an incredible resilience and relentlessness and put itself kind of firmly in the playoff picture," he said. "And they deserved—and our fans deserve—our effort, and the efforts from the front office to try and find ways to make it better."

The front office certainly did what it could to bolster the team's chances ahead of the stretch run.