BOSTON -- IN THE WEEKS leading up to baseball's non-waiver trade deadline, the speculation asked whether the Red Sox would be buyers or sellers. Turns out, a third tag that fit them better than both:

Realists.

Reasoning that his team was as capable as any of making a run at a wild-card playoff berth, and finding no suitable way to improve it substantially among the “1,000 different concepts” he considered, General Manager Ben Cherington emerged from his first deadline as the boss with a left-handed reliever and some roster flexibility — hardly the bombshell outcome some had hoped for, but ultimately signifying his acceptance of his team's predicament without compromising the possibilities of its long- or short-term future.

“In the end, we prefer to not do things rather than make decisions that end up hurting us in the long run,” said the Meriden native. “We're happy with what we did, and most importantly we're happy with the guys we have here, and it's really a reflection on them. We believe in the group. We feel we have as good a chance as any of the teams in this cluster of teams in the wild card to go on a run.”

No prospective trade involving Josh Beckett was ever close enough that the right-handed starter was asked to waive the no-trade rights that come with being a 10-year veteran who has played five seasons with the same team. No offer made enough sense that he was willing to ship backup Kelly Shoppach out of Boston, either.

Instead, the only deal Cherington made with an immediate impact on his major-league roster was a swap that landed lefty Craig Breslow from the Diamondbacks in exchange for bullpen righty Matt Albers and Triple-A outfielder Scott Podsednik.

Albers (with a 2.29 earned run average in 40 appearances) and Podsednik (a .387 hitter in 19 big-league contests) were useful pieces, but the Sox have depth in each of their positions, and Breslow returns to Boston — where he pitched in 2006 — with a 2.70 ERA and a .233 batting average against him.

Those numbers include a .243 batting average against lefties, with 20 strikeouts versus only two walks, though his splits against righties are similar both this season and throughout his career, so he's not exlusively a lefty specialist. That versatility presents value, of course, and it's only enhanced by the fact the Sox now have a replacement if they need to make Franklin Morales a starter after Beckett left last night's outing in the third inning. Both southpaws are under contract next year, too, so that option also exists if the conversion waits until next season.

“We worked on a number of things,” Cherington said. “Bigger concepts, smaller concepts — we got close to a couple things, but in the end we just didn't feel it was right for us, factoring everything in, so this is the direction we went.”

By dealing Albers and Podsednik, Cherington freed one spot on his 40-man roster, then opened up another by trading Pawtucket outfielder Lars Anderson to Cleveland in exchange for Double-A knuckleballer Steven Wright (who the GM professed could become a major-league starter).

Additional 40-man spots could open soon, too, with Tuesday's news that thumb surgery for Ryan Sweeney and a torn elbow ligament for Scott Atchison could spell the end of 2012 for each — which should create space for relievers Chris Carpenter, Andrew Bailey and Rich Hill. Each of them is expected to make an August return. And don't rule out that those are the only tweaks the team will make this month.

If nothing else, Cherington's choice to essentially stand pat Tuesday bought him 31 more days to determine what he has in his team, and where it really stands in relation to the American League. That could mean more time to confirm his belief that it's a contender, or more evidence that it's as mediocre as the first four months have suggested.

Either way, the GM still has the opportunity to add or substract by way of the waiver process. And the fact that which is the wiser remains in debate explains why Tuesday's action — or inaction, as it were — was the responsible course. To this point, the team hasn't showed itself to be good enough that one major upgrade isn't going to put it in a position where it will challenge the Yankees for the East lead, or establish itself as a postseason favorite, so it wouldn't have been good business to fork over the big-time prospects necessary to make such an acquisition. Conversely, even if the playoff competition in Texas (Ryan Dempster), Los Angeles (Zack Greinke) and Detroit (Anibal Sanchez) added arguably the three best starters to be moved, the Sox entered Tuesday only four games out of a playoff spot — with upwards of $170 million already invested — so it's just as hard to envision them giving up on this season entirely.

Thus, barring a firesale or some combination of blockbusters, Boston was almost certainly going to begin and end Tuesday with roughly the same chances of winning a championship in 2012 no matter what moves it made. And, recognizing that, Cherington decided this wasn't the time to either buy or sell.

It was the time to be realistic.

“You're trying to balance the desire to make the team better and give the guys in the clubhouse every chance with the reality of where we are,” said the GM. “As good as we feel about the players we have, you have to do the math and sort of figure out what you need to do to actually pass all of them. We have to weigh that against the desire to make the team better.

“We pursued a lot of different things — some smaller things, some bigger things but in the end, this is what we did.”

Dave D'Onofrio covers the Red Sox for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.