It feels like what the Red Sox ownership has done to their on-field team over the past 5 seasons played, and almost 6 full offseasons, should be illegal.
Before I go any further, I fully understand that I’m speaking in hyperbole, that owners can do whatever they want to do with their teams, and I have the option to not watch/go to games if I’m frustrated, so spare me the “wElL aCtUaLlY” shit in the comments. I get it, but I’m a fan and I can’t turn that off, and putting it all in writing is my attempt at coming to terms with their bullshit.
Five short seasons ago, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers 4 games to 1 in a World Series that was never in doubt. The Red Sox had a young core, ownership spent money, and the future, it seemed, was even brighter than the present, but John Henry would have NONE of that!
First, he hired Chiam Bloom away from Tampa Bay, an organization that is synonymous with spending money and doing whatever it takes to win, to be his GM/mouthpiece/puppet/whipping boy. Next, he forced his new GM to trade 26-year-old former MVP and consensus top-5 player in the game, Mookie Betts, for a bag of balls and some vegan Fenway catchup. If that was the extent of the damage he did, Red Sox nation would still be upset, but you truly can’t pay everybody, and Mookie let the whole world know he wanted top dollar when he reached free agency after the 2020 season.
But John Henry was just getting started. In the COVID-shortened 2020 year, the Red Sox didn’t even try to be competitive, instead choosing to sit back and let a team 2 years removed from a championship get slapped around night after night. They took a few flyers on some seemingly washed-up arms like Martin Perez and trotted out guys named Chris Mazza, Zack Godley, and Ryan Weber for 18 combined starts. That team went 24-36 (a 54-108 pace) in a showing that was so bad that some of the plastic cutouts in the stands were putting bags over their heads to save themselves from watching that trainwreck. Strike 2.
Heading into 2021, Bloom actually had a good offseason, signing Kike Hernandez (when nobody else wanted him), and trading for notable slugger Hunter Renfrow while rounding out the rotation with Garret Richards, who seemingly forgot how to pitch once the “sticky stuff” became illegal. That squad went to game 6 of the ALCS before succumbing to a more talented Astros team. A good season, right? Kind of, but when the Sox were treading water at the trade deadline, Bloom (Henry’s puppet) did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to address any of the glaring holes in the team like bullpen depth and their starting rotation. The team persevered, but the message from ownership was clear. “We don’t believe in you and we don’t care.” Strike 3.
It gets worse from here. Their default captain, Xander Bogaerts, was just a year away from free agency heading into the 2022 season, yet the Red Sox made no real effort to extend him. After Xander walked for greener pastures, and $280M, in San Diego, it was reported that he would have resigned with the Red Sox BEFORE THE SEASON if he was offered a contract in the 6-year, $180M range, a deal that would have been universally applauded. But nope. Instead, Bloom took out a Bogaerts insurance plan by signing Trevor Story to a 6-year $140M contract to play second base (for a year) despite his extensive injury history, including a throwing elbow injury, and general lack of production away from Coors Field. Story played in 94 games and hit 16 home runs in 2022, but outside of a hot week in May, he looked like your buddy’s wife who fills in on your coed softball team when all of the other girls can’t make it. Oh yeah, Story also got hurt a few times and ended the season on the DL. The bullpen still sucked and the starting rotation was in shambles by the time the NFL preseason games started. Strike four.
Still not bad enough for John Henry. In the most predictable series of events this side of the sun coming up every day, the Red Sox made exactly zero effort to sure up their pitching staff, an obvious, GLARING, need for them heading into 2023. They let Michael Wacha…walk-a-way…to San Diego for like $10M, and somehow thought signing the corpse of Corey Kluber was such a good idea that they started him on opening day (he got shelled). All of this resulted in another 78-84 campaign that fell apart in August due to a lack of legit pitching. Strike 5
Still not bad enough for John Henry. This offseason, he was fixated on entering the rarified air of Daniel Snyder and John Fischer as America’s most maligned owners, but how? How can one man piss off an entire region MORE than John Henry had over the past 5 seasons?
Two words. “Full Throttle.”
In their first public appearance/remarks of the offseason AFTER being turned down by 10+ GM candidates and settling for Craig Breslow, minority owner Tom Werner told the whole world that the Red Sox would be going “Full Throttle” this offseason. What exactly does full throttle mean? CUTTING FUCKING PAYROLL! They weren’t close on Yamamoto, they let James Paxton walk, and Justin Turner for 1yr/$15M? Absolutely not. Their one noteworthy signing this offseason is Lucas Giolito, a man who played on 3 teams last year and was DFA’ed by the lowly Angels in August. Sure, there are still two front-end starters on the open market in Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell, but multiple free agents have leaked that Breslow and the Sox have told them point blank they need to shed more payroll before making any signings, so adding a legit starter seems like a pipe dream.
What the fuck, man.
There’s one more anecdote that I haven’t mentioned that puts the current state of the Boston Red Sox into focus perfectly. When asked why fans should invest in a team that’s clearly not investing in their on-field product, Tom Werner, with a straight face, said “The Fenway experience.”
John Henry and Co., clearly look at the Red Sox as an asset on a spreadsheet and no longer care about winning, so I hope they have fun looking at a half-empty ballpark all summer. I know this humble blogger won’t be attending any games this year, and I surely won’t be watching 100+ games on NESN either and neither should you.
