There’s one week left before the trade deadline, and the Red Sox find themselves in No Man’s Land.

The team has too much riding on this year to give up. After missing the playoffs in each of the last two years, the mere act of making the postseason is important, and so even as the Sox slipped below .500 with their 9-1 blowout loss to the Rangers on Monday, they cannot simply punt on the idea of making a run at a wild card spot.

At the same time, with the trade deadline looming, the team has to be realistic about its chances. There’s a very real possibility that a player acquired at the trade deadline this year won’t be enough to push the Sox into the postseason.

There are TEN teams in the American League right now with better records than the Red Sox. The Sox’ record places them not just among the bottom half of teams in the American League but instead the bottom third.

The addition of a second wild card team is fueling the Red Sox’ postseason ambitions this year, but even so, at a time when the Sox are playing for a wild card (now that they are 10 full games behind the Yankees in the division), they require a massive kick over the remaining 65 games this year to push past at least six of the following teams to reach the playoffs:

Angels (52-44, 4.5 games ahead of the Sox)
Athletics (51-44, 4.0 games ahead)
Orioles (51-45, 3.5 games ahead)
White Sox (51-45, 3.5 games ahead)
Rays (49-47, 1.5 games ahead)
Blue Jays (48-47, 1.0 games ahead)
Indians (48-48, 0.5 games ahead)

Again, the Sox must be better than at least six of those teams down the stretch in order to reach the postseason. Is that impossible? Of course not. Is it likely? At this point, it’s hard for the Red Sox to base any of their decision-making on the idea that this team will catch fire and leapfrog so many clubs that stand between them and a one-game playoff in October.

Their strategy at the trade deadline will undoubtedly reflect that reality. It makes little sense to make deals that are focused solely on improving the team’s chances for this season.

For that reason, it comes as little surprise that the Sox, according to a major league source, talked to the Cubs about right-hander Ryan Dempster but “never engaged” Chicago in meaningful discussions about the right-hander that would have included a formal offer. Dempster -- even though he’s leading the National League with a 2.11 ERA -- didn’t make sense on a couple of levels.

First, he’s purely a rental who will be eligible for free agency after this season. No sense in the Sox paying a steep price to acquire such a player given the realities that they face this year. Secondly, the price was indeed steep. The Braves reportedly are prepared to give up highly regarded pitching prospect Randall Delgado for Dempster; an equivalent concession by the Sox would require them to give up one of their top pitching prospects, either Matt Barnes or Henry Owens. The team is simply not going there for a rental.

The same logic suggests that the team has little incentive to go after pitchers such as Cole Hamels and Zack Greinke if they become available. Both are going to be free agents after this season. The Sox can afford to move second-tier prospects, but certainly not the cream of their system, to bolster their chances for the rest of 2012 given the realities of their position in the playoff race.

So where does that leave the Sox? The team occupies a different position than it did a year ago, when it moved four second-tier prospects (Stephen Fife, Tim Federowicz, Chih-Hsien Chiang and Juan Rodriguez) at the trade deadline for a rental starter in Erik Bedard.

This year, the Sox need to focus on players who would make them better beyond 2012. And that is why the rumors of the team’s interest in right-hander Josh Johnson are so intriguing.

Johnson, 28, has demonstrated the ability to be one of the most dominant starters in the majors. Between 2009-11, he went 29-12 with a 2.64 ERA while striking out nearly a batter an inning and punching out more than three times as many batters as he walked. When he’s on, he’s precisely the sort of power pitcher with elite breaking stuff who can help front a rotation through the postseason.

The right-hander has dealt with health issues that demand some caution about his value. He was shut down at the end of 2010 with a back issue, and was limited to just nine starts in 2011 due to shoulder inflammation. But when he’s at the top of his game -- as he was on Monday night, when he threw six innings and allowed just one hit while striking out nine and walking none before leaving the game due to a small cut on his finger -- he is one of the best pitchers in the game.

Johnson is 6-7 with a 4.14 ERA this year. He’s been healthy, making all 20 of his starts, but he’s endured stretches of both dominance (such as a 10-start run in which he had a 2.47 ERA from early May through the end of June) and disappointment (a 6.61 ERA in six starts to open the year) in his return to the mound this year.

He’s signed not just for this year (for which he’s still due to earn about $5.5 million) but through 2013 (when he will earn $13.75 million), and his salary for luxury tax purposes ($9.75 million) makes him relatively inexpensive. Of course, if the Marlins have visions of contending next season, it's a bit of a mystery why they would want to move the big right-hander, but Miami's disastrous opening of its new ballpark clearly has forced the team to overhaul radically a blueprint that included contention in 2012.

Johnson and Matt Garza -- likewise a power pitcher who is under team control through 2013 and has a demonstrated track record in the AL East, albeit with a newly created red flag after he left his most recent start with forearm cramping -- represent the only types of upgrades who make sense for the Sox, starters who address the team’s deficient rotation not just for the current season but beyond.

But there’s a caveat. The cost of acquiring a rental like Dempster was a young starter like Delgado, who in each of the last two years has been ranked among the top 50 prospects in all of baseball. The cost to the Tigers of acquiring second baseman Omar Infante (under contract through next year) and rental pitcher Anibal Sanchez was a prospect package that included right-hander Jacob Turner, who has been among the top 30 prospects in baseball for three straight years.

And so, the cost to the Sox of upgrading the rotation for 2012 and 2013 would be immense, and perhaps prohibitive, as the team tries to cultivate its next wave of homegrown talent to achieve a long-term, sustainable model for a return to being a perennial contender.

And that, in turn, could limit the team’s actions as the trade deadline approaches. After all, while it would be a mistake for the team to walk away from the possibility of competitive success in 2012, it’s difficult for the team to devote too many resources to upgrading for the short-term given the reality that confronts the club.

Through roughly 60 percent of the baseball calendar, the Sox have been a wildly inconsistent team that has shown sporadic but unsustainable flashes of quality play. The team is currently getting beaten senseless, having been outscored 37-12 in its last four games.

Under those circumstances, while team officials can’t afford to write off 2012 and adopt a “wait till next year” mantra, they also can’t mortgage the future solely for the sake of the rest of this season.