CHICAGO — You can be sure Dave Dombrowski will need to make at least one move, if not multiple, in the next two months. But trade season has not started yet, the Red Sox president of baseball operations said Tuesday afternoon.
"Not really,” he said. “I think it's more of a situation where you're talking to clubs, you have a pulse of what's going on — not always necessarily me, but being in a position where some of our scouts are out there talking. Right now, it's more of an information-gathering time period. People want to stay in this thing if they can. They're more in a situation where they're trying to do that.
“The handful of clubs where you can make trades, you could have figured those out a month ago… because they're building for the future. Other than that, most of the other clubs are trying to hold where they are to see how long they can be in that spot. I don't think it's a real heavy trade talk time period. It's not to say something can't happen at any time out of the blue, but I don't think it's that time period.”
The Red Sox could use help at third base right now. Just how great their need for starting and relief pitching will be is harder to gauge. If Drew Pomeranz shows a semblance of competency and David Price is indeed back and healthy, they may not need a starter. Maybe Brian Johnson’s potential figures into that equation too.
Tyler Thornburg remains a mystery and frankly a disaster of a trade thus far, but Carson Smith is, slowly, making progress.
“Well, Smith threw today. He threw all of his pitches with hitters standing in,” Dombrowski said. “I talked to him afterwards. He said he felt great. Thornburg continues to be diagnosed and watched, and we're still waiting to see where that takes us.”
There’s been no new diagnosis offered by the team for Thornburg, who is on the disabled list with a shoulder impingement.
Boston Red Sox
“No more at this time, no,” Dombrowski said. “No more updates.”