It’s tough to say, but the Red Sox should not make a major move at this time – The Boston Globe

They traded outfielder Randy Arozarena, a postseason dynamo more than once, to the Mariners. Starter Zack Eflin moved to the Orioles. Reliever Jason Adam was dealt to the Padres. And third baseman Isaac Paredes was swapped to the Cubs.

The return? Eleven players total, plus a player to be named later, and modest major league help for now. The Rays hit the reset button, as they are prone to do every few years, fans’ bond with players be damned.

I’m not sure the Red Sox — a team that entered the season with subterranean expectations, won over even the most cynical among us with six dazzling weeks through June and into July, then collapsed inward with a 3-7 record out of the All-Star break — can do the same.

If we’re being honest, though … they probably should.

And I say “probably” only because what the human abacuses who run the Rays have done in advance of the deadline is utterly soulless. There is no more effective way to turn fans from invested to indifferent than to take emotion out of … well, everything.

Baseball is emotion. Take away the reasons to care — the attachment to players you’ve watched grow into stars, the continuity and forged connections, the ups validating all of the downs that had to be endured along the way — and you might as well just play Strat-o-Matic. Roll the dice, play your cards, and care not at all once the game is done.

In a smaller market, with a fan base that is used to the roster churn, the Rays can get away with this, and it probably will benefit them in the long run.

In Boston, where the heroes return to wave from the Legends Suite and bonds with beloved players permeate generations, such an approach borders on the intolerable, especially now, with this eager and athletic team having a different vibe — one suggesting real hope and the potential of sustainability — than sluggish recent entries.

But again … all sentiment and emotion aside (if we can bring ourselves to do that), the Red Sox probably are better off in the long run if they add only modestly, and subtract players with expiring contracts and legitimate trade appeal.

It stinks to say that, to teeter on a concession, because during the thrilling series against the Royals pre-All-Star break, it felt as if the Red Sox were charging toward a playoff spot, and maybe even one of greater magnitude than the third wild card.

But that’s how bad it has been since the break.

It’s not just that 3-7 record, which includes a pivotal loss Saturday to the Yankees in which Kenley Jansen and Tyler O’Neill conspired to allow the visitors to tie a game with two outs in the ninth.

It’s that the Red Sox have so many needs in a market with so few sellers that the cost to acquire everything to bolster this team into true contender status would be prohibitive. It would be counterproductive to their longer-term goals, perhaps even detrimental.

Before the break, I wrote that the ideal would be reunions with Justin Turner and Nate Eovaldi.

Turner did come back to Fenway Park — as a member of the Mariners, who acquired him before opening a series in Boston Monday night.

Eovaldi, whose Rangers are 5½ back of the third wild card, is on the short list of the most desirable starting pitchers potentially on the market. Paying the price for him would make sense if the Red Sox had come out of the break strong.

But the cold truth is that the Red Sox have played their way out of justifying the cost of significant reinforcements.

Tanner Houck, the first-half ace, has a 5.26 ERA and as many walks (15) as strikeouts in his last five starts. Getting rotation depth such as James Paxton on the cheap is fine, but suddenly there must be concern about who is fronting the rotation rather than filling it out. And they need another starter beyond Paxton.

What else? The bullpen needs at least two arms. Another righthanded bat is necessary, and Danny Jansen, acquired over the weekend from the Blue Jays, helps only modestly there.

Had the Red Sox gone, say, 5-4, out of the break, Craig Breslow’s decisions might be more difficult. But the struggles mean that there should not be temptation to swing big.

Low-cost additions like Jansen and Paxson are welcome. But it might be wiser to trade the likes of Kenley Jansen and O’Neill in this seller’s market than to overpay for major help on the thin and fading hope of real contention.

I know, that’s disappointing for those who fell for this team, but the reality is that next season — when Triston Casas is fully healthy, and Trevor Story returns, and that electric group of Sea Dogs is knocking on the Fenway clubhouse door — offers more reason for genuine hope than the remainder of this one does.

The Red Sox cannot be as cold, or as bold, as those Rays; this market cares too much to allow a team with a winning record to hold a fire sale, and this team is too likable, even with all of its flaws.

So the best approach is to add an arm that might intrigue with Andrew Bailey adjustments, or a bench bat who could contribute in a platoon role. You know, minor help.

Save the major moves, Breslow, for the season to come, when the injured have healed, the kids are nearer to ready, and contention should be so much more than the fun illusion it is now.

Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.