Toucher & Rich: What Do Red Sox Do Now?
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Red Sox lost. Again. That makes it seven straight, and they're now 11 games out of first place in the American League East.
Optimism existed as recently as two weeks ago, but that has been obliterated.
With that in mind, Fred Toucher and Jon Wallach debated what the Red Sox can do and should do before the July 31 trading deadline.
Given that the Sox aren't overloaded with highly desirable assets, Wallach suggested trading Junichi Tazawa.
"He's 29 years old, he has one arbitration year left, maybe you get something for him," Wallach said.
"I wouldn't move Tazawa. He's arguably your best pitcher," Fred said. "Ideally, you would like to at least compete for a wild card next season, so I would keep Tazawa."
Fred and Wallach agreed that there's no chance that the Red Sox could get anything at all in return for Mike Napoli or Justin Masterson, and that the Red Sox would be better off with anybody else taking the roster spots of those two players.
Still, the Sox don't have many moves to make.
"Right now you just trot your kids out and see what they can do," Fred said. "I don't know why they haven't, and I don't know why Jackie Bradley Jr. is not getting a shot -- at least to showcase him. He's doing everything he can in Triple-A. I would bring him up, I would play everyone. You're stuck with Sandoval, you're stuck with Ramirez, you've got Pedroia and you've got Bogaerts and Betts, and then everything else is up for grabs. I'd play Swihart, I'd catch him as much as possible. I guess you could move your backup catcher ... ."
Fred and Wallach then debated comments from Ben Cherington. The Red Sox GM said that the big picture view doesn't change, despite the last-place team. Fred took issue with the suggestion, but Wallach said it's all about appearances.
"Part of this is PR," Wallach said. "If you're stuck with that and you're not going to make any moves, at least the illusion of you trying remains. For Cherington to say, 'You know what, we're going to bring up the kids, this is the third time in four years, the most expensive seats in baseball,' it factors in here. There are a lot of people spending a lot of money to go to the ballpark, and if you're telling them, 'That's it, we're kicking this away for the third time in four years,' that's not good business."
Listen to the full discussion below:
