The Red Sox made a couple of additions at the trade deadline, acquiring infielder Eduardo Nunez from the Giants and reliever Addison Reed from the Mets. But they didn’t make any huge splashes.
It’s possible there were no huge splashes that made sense for them, but it’s also the case, Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal reports, that Sox ownership told Dombrowski at the deadline that he was not to touch the top of the farm system. Dombrowski has denied this.
Dombrowski has a reputation for a big deal, but in Detroit those big deals -- however well they turned out at the big league level -- served to deplete the Tigers farm system. Since coming to Boston Dombrowski has continued the trend, dealing for Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel and Drew Pomeranz. The Sox -- if you believe McAdam’s sources -- told Dombrowski that enough was enough and that, though winning now is clearly the goal, it should not come at the expense of winning later too.