The long view on that crazy little thing called the trade deadline.
Ah, the trade deadline. It has consumed our thoughts for at least two months now. That will continue as we evaluate the immediate results, the long-term impacts, and the “woulda-coulda-shouldas” across the league. (My own personal “shoulda” is a defensive upgrade in the infield for the Red Sox, but you probably already know that.)
How to explain our obsession with the trade deadline?
Well, of course, it’s a deadline and those are tough to ignore. They make you sit up and pay attention.
And it’s a chance to get better, to win. And I mean that on the team level, of course, but also— what President of Baseball Operations doesn’t want to own the trade deadline? Make the best, savviest moves (whether they are blockbuster or stealth), and maybe even have their brilliance celebrated at the end of October.
October — that’s the crux of it. We fans want our team to win at the end of the year, and that’s why we love the trade deadline, simple as that. Or is it?
Bear with me here, but I think there could be something more going on. In Japan, kaizen means to always attempt to get better, even in incremental ways. Chip away at the goal, make little improvements, and get to where you want to be.
Usually it refers to business, but this never-ending drive for continuous improvement sounds a lot like evolution to me: constantly adapting and responding to the environment in order to survive. Baseball-wise, this is true in a literal way. We already know which PBOs and managers are said to be on the hot seat. And, certainly, trades cause some players to lose their jobs.
But I find myself thinking about this in a more philosophical way. Why I’m doing that today, I’m not entirely sure. Maybe it’s because I went to a Decemberists concert last night?
I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on what this band is all about. But I’m getting a vibe of deep yearning, commitment to true love, confrontation with massive disappointment. Also, sea shanties, murder, and a reference to Beacon Street. Sounds like Boston to me.
In their songs, a lot of grinding and battling take place. There may be a real opponent involved, or it might be a completely personal struggle. Sometimes no one fully understands what’s happened until they’re able to look back on the event later. Elaborate plans are developed. Sometimes, people are made to pay. Say what you want, but this all sounds like baseball strategy to me.
I do think the band has the soul of a Red Sox fan, even if they are from Portland. (No, the other one: Oregon. And by the way, there is no evidence that they’re baseball fans. This is how rumors get started.)
But come on, tell me that a “little ugly” isn’t just like one of our damn errors. (We’re still leading the majors, by the way.) Could there be a better trade deadline-themed song title than “Make You Better”? They have a song about New England too. Wait, no—it’s only called “O, New England” but I think it’s really about broken hearts.
This is for sure, though: they sang about placing coins on the eyes of dead bodies as a funeral ritual, and then the lead singer told us outright that everyone in the crowd, no getting around it, was definitely going to die. It got some laughs—uneasy ones—but still. I’ve always found baseball to be a total metaphor in that way. After all, the season begins with the arrival of spring and ends when the deepest, darkest part of the fall arrives, with the dead leaves already on the ground. Do your best in the time you have, hope your health holds up, and then clean out your locker.
For me, that’s getting closer to it, the importance behind this trade deadline. There’s some universal experience which begins to explain, for me, why the trade deadline holds so much of our attention, and for so long.
Those Presidents of Baseball Operations were only doing their best with the resources they’ve been given, and operating within the time constraints. What can they count on for sure? (Absolutely nothing, as any human alive can tell you.) But, what can be eked out—that might be the better question. What role will luck play? How to weigh immediate gratification versus what might be achieved long-term? What we want versus what we need. What we wish we had versus what might actually get the job done.
I didn’t get what I wanted out of the Red Sox trade deadline, but if the Red Sox got what they needed, it doesn’t matter what I think. We made some moves for pitching, and that needed to happen. I think we became better, yes.
This past series against the Mariners isn’t definitive because the trade deadline occurred in the middle of it, and even though we found two wins, they were sort of concerning. Although our offense slayed on Monday, our bullpen collapsed (albeit with enough cushion that we could absorb it). In the next game, the seesaw went the other way. James Paxton was, not unexpectedly, ho-hum. He certainly wasn’t helped by the defense, which committed three errors. Wednesday’s game was another extra-innings nailbiter, but luckily the Sox pulled it out. But now Kenley Jansen may be injured…to what extent, we don’t know. (Good thing we acquired relief pitching, right?)
And so it goes. Ironically, the only way to answer our baseball questions is by playing more baseball. That’s an irony of life as well, isn’t it. We’ll continue to monitor the long-term effects of the deadline. That’s the long game, folks. The trade deadline has occupied so much of our thoughts for so long, and that’s not going to end anytime soon.