Dombrowski: Red Sox owner never said not to trade prospects at deadline

Boston Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski denied a recent report that said he was instructed by ownership not to unload any of his team's top prospects leading up to last week's non-waiver trade-deadline.

Though he didn't add any stars as the deadline neared, acquiring only Eduardo Nunez and Addison Reed to bolster Boston's roster, it wasn't because his bosses told him to preserve prospect capital, Dombrowski said, insisting he has always enjoyed full authority as a top baseball executive.

"I think I’ve probably have had as autonomous a career you can have as a general manager, president of baseball operations, whatever your title may be," Dombrowski said on the "CSNNE Baseball Show" podcast, per Evan Drellich. “But I think you’re always on the same page with your ownership. You need to be . . . If we were making an option of a player (to send him to the minors), I would not call (ownership) and consult with them, that’s a day-to-day operation. But if you are making a big acquisition for your club or even from philosophical perspective, what you’re going to try to attempt, you always try to keep them in the loop."

Ultimately, Dombrowski said, he didn't add any huge names because he didn't feel the Red Sox - now boasting a three-game lead atop the American League East - needed a massive talent infusion.

"This past year, once we got through the winter meetings -- and of course we made the big trades, and traded a lot of players -- I thought at that point we had pretty much done what we needed from a big perspective," Dombrowski said.