The Boston Red Sox got off to a hot start this season, but have quickly come back down to Earth.
They now are in last place in the American League East with a 28-27 record and are 10.5 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays.
The team lost Xander Bogaerts, Michael Wacha, J.D. Martinez, and Nathan Eovaldi in free agency, though they did add Adam Duvall, Kenley Jansen, Justin Turner, and Masataka Yoshida.
Still, the Sox have lost seven of their last 10 games and are slipping in the standings.
On Twitter, Red Sox analyst Thomas Carrieri made a prediction about the team’s potential trade deadline strategy and where they might be come August 1.
Realistically, it will probably take 92-96 wins to even get a third Wild Card in the AL. Not to be a Debbie Downer because we're not at that point yet, but the Red Sox might want to access who they want on the team in 2024 and who they might consider trading at the deadline.
— Thomas Carrieri (@Thomas_Carrieri) June 1, 2023
Carrieri predicted that due to how stacked the American League is at the moment, it may take at least 92-96 wins to earn the third Wild Card spot.
In the Wild Card race, the Sox are four games behind the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.
If the Red Sox don’t gain significant ground, it is always possible that they could end up selling at the trade deadline.
The AL East is a stacked division, with every team currently sitting above the .500 mark.
However, the team does have some pieces they could sell off from the fringes of their roster such as Justin Turner, Enrique Hernandez, Chris Martin, James Paxton, and Kenley Jansen, so if they aren’t any closer or potentially even further back in the standings, selling at the deadline could be a strategy.
With June just beginning, there is time to make up ground, but the Red Sox will need to do it quickly to have a chance at reaching the postseason.
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