3 Red Sox players Yankees fans are grateful weren’t sold at trade deadline

1. Nathan Eovaldi

Perhaps Bloom’s most valuable asset in Nathan Eovaldi — an ace-like right-hander who is a buzzsaw in the postseason and has downright owned the Yankees — somehow didn’t change hands on Aug. 2. And we’re still trying to understand why.

Starting pitching, every single year both in the offseason and at the deadline, is the most sought-after position. With the Sox floundering and Eovaldi on an expiring contract as the Red Sox seek to save more money, it felt like a foregone conclusion the veteran and the remaining ~8 million on his contract would be shipped to another contender looking for rotation help.

Guys like Frankie Montas, Luis Castillo and Tyler Mahle — though they all have an extra year of control attached to them after 2022 — fetched very good returns when they were traded last week. Maybe Eovaldi wouldn’t have commanded multiple top-five prospects like Castillo did, but at least one? Absolutely. Plus maybe a top-20 and a lottery ticket. Would’ve been at least two young pieces.

The only reason this feels a lot more egregious than the average fan might think is because the 2022 Sox have shown zero faith in being a successful playoff team. Their dreadful start to the year dug them in a hole, and their otherworldly June saw them gain nothing on the Yankees because … New York was just that good. The fact that Bloom, who was seemingly brought in from the Rays to cash out like a bandit with layup assets and instill a new operation from the ground up, didn’t orchestrate that philosophy when the timing was nearly perfect feels like a huge miss.

Though Eovaldi might destroy the Yankees on Friday night, at least fans didn’t have to see the Sox pull off highway robbery on another team in dire need of high-quality starting pitching.

3 Red Sox players Yankees fans will hopefully watch leave at trade deadline

The New York Yankees and their fans hate the Boston Red Sox, so hopefully these three division rivals will be gone by the trade deadline.