Boston Red Sox fans got premature excitement during Thursday’s MLB trade deadline frenzy. FOX Sports MLB tweeted out a graphic that Minnesota Twins star right-hand pitcher Joe Ryan landed with the Red Sox. The only problem is, there was no deal. In fact, there never was a deal. It brings on the importance of being accurate vs. being first. It’s always good to be the first to report news, but if it’s wrong, well, that hurts more than being right.
What makes the mistake worse is that it happened in the middle of MLB trade deadline drama. Had this been any other day, it probably wouldn’t have been a major issue. But getting some egregiously wrong in the middle of deadline rumors is unacceptable.
Red Sox fans have every right to be upset. A lesson can be learned from all of this in that patience is important, and so is double-checking your sources.
False Joe Ryan trade deal sends Boston Red Sox fans into frenzy
Not doing whatever it took to get Joe Ryan is so incredibly disappointing. It felt like that thing was on the 5-yard line and it didn’t get done. You can’t get that close and not close the deal. Can’t happen.
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) July 31, 2025
The Red Sox were in Minnesota the last 3 days and didn’t become “serious” for Joe Ryan until 540 on trade deadline day. Get Craig Breslow the fuck out of Boston
— Douglas J (@RedSoxDoug) July 31, 2025
It’s not really reasonable to be mad at the Sox not acquiring Joe Ryan today. No one did.
— Jake (@JakeWallinger) August 1, 2025
It IS very reasonable to be mad that they didn’t acquire a starter not named Dustin May.
Thank you.
I was promised Joe Ryan and instead I got the guy we just tee’d off against 3 days ago pic.twitter.com/nBWe1pyrt4 https://t.co/oa7hI2VGvo
— KutterIsKing (@KutterIsKing) July 31, 2025
From Joe Ryan to “Dustin May” https://t.co/MtVXmC4j4j pic.twitter.com/iEYygjbNOr
— BoKnows (@NuckoWrestling) July 31, 2025
The real Joe Ryan was the friends we made along the way
— Liam Fennessy (@LiamFennessy_) July 31, 2025
What makes the falsified deal crazy is that the Red Sox going after a star pitcher makes sense. Boston has had some issues with their pitching staff so they were in the market for a new pitcher. Walker Buehler was supposed to be their ace yet he didn’t live up to the expectations. And when the Red Sox parted ways with Rafael Devers things got bad.
Then they got good. So good, the Red Sox went from potentially selling to being deadline buyers and looking for ways to stay in the AL wild card conversation. Dangling Ryan over the Red Sox fans head is taunting in the worst way. For a quick second, Red Sox fans had hope and almost instantly it was yanked from them.
Boston indeed beefed up their pitching staff with Steven Matz and Dustin May, two solid acquisitions to show how serious they are about a postseason run. But they didn’t land Ryan. The Twins were fire selling this deadline, parting ways with just about everyone. It would have made sense if Ryan ended up on a new team.
The Red Sox made a late push for Ryan but to no avail. Now they’ll have dangling over their head how close they were to getting the pitcher that could have changed their season. May and Matz could, but they’re not Ryan. And the Red Sox will have that reminder if things don’t work out.