The 2022 MLB trade deadline is upon us. Across the majors, the hot stove is heating up. The Juan Soto saga is sizzling, the Wilson Contreras sweepstakes crackling, and the Red Sox firesale has turned into a five-alarm blaze.
On Monday night, the latter took its strangest turn yet, when the Sox traded catcher Christian Vazquez to Houston Astros … during BP at Minute Maid Park ahead of their game against, you guessed it, the Houston Astros. That led to this scene, with a clearly bewildered and emotional Vazquez gazing across at his new dugout from his old dugout as reporters swarmed, shoving their iPhones in his face.
Before things fully devolved into a crying-Wilmer-Flores situation, Vazquez was whisked away by Red Sox PR and handed over to his new team a couple hallways down. But, as is always the case with the Astros, that wasn’t the end of the intrigue. Soon after the trade became official, outfielder J.D. Martinez—himself rumored Red Sox trade bait—wondered aloud about the timing of the Astros’ deal.
Conspiracy? Almost certainly not. The Red Sox have been one of the most pathetic teams in baseball over the past month. The writing has been on the clubhouse wall for awhile now. Did the Sox save themselves some airfare by waiting until they were in Houston to trade Vazquez to Houston? Maybe, but that’s the most nefarious thing going on. The rest, as Vazquez himself said, is just “business.” Profoundly weird business, but business all the same.
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