Red Sox now officially sellers as trade deadline approaches

On a night where his three premier offensive players all homered and a key pitcher made a strong return to the mound, Ron Roenicke spent the majority of his virtual postgame press conference addressing a new reality.

The Red Sox are officially sellers. They’ve traded relief pitchers Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to the Phillies, and it would be a shock [...]

On a night where his three premier offensive players all homered and a key pitcher made a strong return to the mound, Ron Roenicke spent the majority of his virtual postgame press conference addressing a new reality.

The Red Sox are officially sellers. They’ve traded relief pitchers Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree to the Phillies, and it would be a shock if more moves didn’t follow prior to the Aug. 31 deadline.

Boston’s three-game winning streak is a footnote. This particular 8-5 victory over the Orioles is just one result in what is now a rebuilding season. Boston’s brutal start convinced chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom to open his phone lines and Zoom meeting links for business.

"We put ourselves in that position by not playing better early," Roenicke said. "That’s certainly not all on the players. It’s certainly on me, too."

The Red Sox bottomed out at 6-18 thanks to a nine-game losing streak. They allowed 86 runs during that stretch, a new franchise worst. Even a pitching staff with Workman and Hembree available was headed for the worst earned-run average in the franchise’s 120-year history.

Those realities had Bloom consummating his first in-season trade with Boston in exchange for Philadelphia right-handers Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold. Both come with considerable prospect pedigree, and Pivetta has made 92 appearances in the big leagues. The Red Sox are perhaps banking on the fact that bouncing him between two different roles – 71 starts, 21 relief appearances – wasn’t best for his development.

"I think in some cases a change of scenery can help a player like this," Bloom said. "In some cases a change in opportunity can help a player like this."

Pivetta was optioned to the alternate site at Pawtucket and Seabold will report to McCoy Stadium as a member of the player pool. There is no immediate help on the way for Boston’s rotation, which still remains one of baseball’s worst. It’s unlikely an aggressive acquisition like Nathan Eovaldi in July 2018 is forthcoming – this club is nobody’s idea of a World Series favorite.

"We want to be contenders every year," Roenicke said. "To do that sometimes you have to make moves. In a down year, if you can make moves to correct things or to get on track for the next few years, I think you have to do it. And I’m all for it.

"I want to win as much as anybody. I’ve done this for a long time and I’ve been on a lot of losing teams, and I really don’t want to do that anymore. I understand it. I understand everything that goes on and I’ve seen it happen a lot."

Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Rafael Devers all went deep and left the Red Sox within a grand slam of the home run cycle. Darwinzon Hernandez followed up four scoreless innings by Colten Brewer with two of his own. If all five of those players are part of Boston’s future, that’s just fine.

But that’s no longer a guarantee, and it should have been obvious since February. You don’t send Mookie Betts and David Price out of town – no matter their contract situations – if you’re attempting to get better for the upcoming season specifically.

Start the clock on 2021 or 2022. Bloom said earlier this week he’s reluctant to put a timetable on working back into contention, so we’ll allow Red Sox fans to do that for him. Perhaps by that point Pivetta and Seabold will both be in the rotation – Hernandez might be alongside them.

Consider this the second significant night where we mark the progress of the Boston rebuild. There are bound to be several more to come.

bkoch@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @BillKoch25