McAdam: Red Sox moved the needle a little ... but it's going to be a while

Sometimes, the biggest deals get made with minutes -- or even seconds -- to spare before Major League Baseball's trade deadline.

It happened in 2008 when the Red Sox shipped Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers as part of a three-team deal. (To this day, some rival executives insist the deal was completed after the official deadline, but that's a matter for another time).

Monday, however, was not one of those days for the Red Sox.

True, in the final half-hour prior to the 4 p.m. trade deadline, the Red Sox did make two trades, though neither qualified as significant. But in the end, Deadline Day 2020 will likely be remembered for what the Red Sox didn't do as much as what they did.

• They didn't trade Christian Vazquez, despite extended talks with at least two teams -- the New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays. In both cases, the Red Sox demands in return were seen as exorbitant and some questioned why the Sox had bothered to discuss him at all. Perhaps they were gauging the market for this winter, aware some teams might be wary of dealing for a catcher mid-season, given the challenges for receivers who change teams and must learn a new pitching staff on the fly. Either way, it seemed, the Sox were only going to move Vazquez is some team wildly overpaid for him.


• There were brief discussions with the Texas Rangers about Nathan Eovaldi with the Rangers willing to swap one bad contract for another by sending the Sox infielder Rougned Odor, who has $28 million due him past this season compared to $34 million for Eovaldi. But in the end, the talks never advanced far.


• Jackie Bradley Jr., eligible for free agency after this season, was discussed with at least one other club -- ending speculation that the Red Sox wouldn't consider moving him and thus leaving themselves without a single African-American player on their roster, further highlighting the franchise's less-than-glorious history when it comes to race relations at a time when the topic of diversity is a national flashpoint -- but again, the asking price was prohibitive.


• Wisely, they did not so much as enter into any casual talks centered around franchise shortstop Xander Bogaerts, despite industry speculation that no one on the roster was untouchable.