Thinking about how far the Red Sox have come, and how they might navigate the trade deadline

Playing nine innings while noting that the Red Sox need to go 56-5 the rest of the way to match their franchise-best 108-54 record from the 2018 season. You know what? These guys kind of make you feel like it is plausible …

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1. A month ago Wednesday, the Red Sox were 31-45 and had just lost two in a row to the laughable Colorado Rockies. Had one of you fans that unfailingly views this team through carmine-colored glasses suggested that that they still had a run at the playoffs in them, I would have said “playoffs?!?!” in the Jim Mora voice and then told you that you’re crazier than Carl Everett at a Ron Kulpa Lookalike Contest. And yet here we are, a month later, and they’ve won 23 of 27 since that date, including a franchise-record-tying 15 in a row, while playing with such energy, faith, and joy that I found myself legitimately bummed out Tuesday afternoon when their game was rained out. Who could have seen this coming? I refuse to believe even the most hopeful Red Sox fan could have anticipated anything resembling this.

2. One of the enjoyable offshoots of the practically unfathomable winning streak is that it has brought the ’88 Morgan Magic Red Sox back into our conscience. That team, which won 19 of 20 and 24 in a row at home after quirky-like-fox Joe Morgan took over as manager for miserable John McNamara, was much more talented than this year’s incarnation. Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst, and trade deadline pickup Mike Boddicker formed a super starting pitching trio. And the lineup was loaded, with an ideal mix of the young (MVP runner-up Mike Greenwell, electrifying Ellis Burks, and clutch Todd Benzinger and the established (Hall of Famers Wade Boggs and fading-but-still-capable Jim Rice, and should-be-Hall-of-Famer Dwight Evans). Somehow, those ’88 Sox were actually nine games under .500 on the road (36-45) but went 53-28 at friendly Fenway.

3. OK, back to the magic that’s been happening lately, and a question for you, (mostly) dear readers: What is the specific move you want Craig Breslow to make before the trade deadline? I ask because I’ve been trying to identify players they absolutely should pursue and trade packages they should try to assemble, and let me tell you, Trader Finn here is not having much luck, because there just do not seem to be ideal matches between the Red Sox’ needs (righthanded pop, at more than one position) and what might be available.

4. The most intriguing hitter — again, based on the Sox’ needs — rumored to maybe/possibly be available is Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman, a 26-year-old righthanded hitter who has clobbered 31 home runs already. But the price will be steeeep given that Goodman is signed through 2029, and he is a Colorado outlier — he’s been a much better hitter on the road (18 homers, .964 OPS) than at Coors Field (13 homers, .816 OPS). Suspect their asking price would start with Franklin Arias and would not come close to stopping there.

5. I’ve always enjoyed watching Francisco Lindor play, and the Mets are one of the few teams sure to have a For Sale sign up, but I can’t see Breslow making a deal for the switch-hitting 32-year-old shortstop. He’s due to make $34.1 million dollars each season through 2031, his age-37 season. He’s been durable, missing just 15 games from 2022-25, but he’s played just 46 games this year after suffering a calf injury in the first week of the season. The Sox are already paying a lot of money to one injury-plagued shortstop, Trevor Story.

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6. Speaking of shortstops on the wrong side of 30, ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel recently noted that the Padres are willing to move virtually unhittable closer Mason Miller, but only if Xander Bogaerts and the estimated $204 million remaining on his contract are attached. There’s a better chance of Bill Lee starting a postseason game for the Red Sox this year than there is of the Red Sox taking back that deal, which runs through Bogaerts’s age-40 season. They didn’t even want to pay him half of what he got from the Padres after the 2022 season, when he was coming off his second straight season with more than 5 WAR.

7. But I will admit, I allowed myself to ponder an amended Bogaerts Returns! possibility: if the Padres took back Story … and ate a couple of seasons’ worth of salary on Bogaerts’s deal … and still included Miller to give the Red Sox a ruthless bullpen … and Bogaerts got back to Fenway, where he is a .312 career hitter with an .870 OPS … and his professionalism could set an example for Marcelo Mayer in particular … well, I pondered it. Might ponder it again, too.

8. So what can Breslow do? He’s overdue to have a decent trade deadline after whiffing in his first two as the Red Sox’ chief baseball offer. But the solutions are not obvious, and they may not be available at all. The calculus is especially complicated this year. Fortunately, I suspect calculus is one of Breslow’s favorite parts of baseball.

9. I don’t like to part on a down note, especially during the Red Sox’ extraordinary stretch. But the one thing the front office absolutely cannot do is try to convince fans — if the deadline is uneventful — that players potentially coming off the injured list are de facto trade deadline pickups. Taking that tack would be a different kind of offensive than the feats the Red Sox have achieved at the plate recently.

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