The Red Sox are in last place in the AL east, 4 games below .500 and are playing out the string. With football season upon us and the storylines surrounding the Patriots almost limitless, I forgive you if you didn’t make an effort to watch the Red Sox play the Royals this weekend. I sure as hell didn’t. But I like baseball and have some optimism that this team will be much better next year so I still follow them. I’m addicted.
Let’s recap the weekend.
The product on the field was exactly what you’d expect from two bad teams playing each other in September. Once close game and two blowouts, one for each team. The Red Sox took 2-of-3 winning 2-1 on Friday, getting their brains beat in 9-0 on Saturday before returning the favor on Sunday beating the Royals 13-3. Wacha, who this team absolutely needs to resign, went 7 solid innings earning his 11th win to go along with a 2.61 ERA in 114 innings on Friday. Rich Hill pitched like you’d expect a 42-year-old man to pitch Saturday further cementing my opinion that he needs to be coaching his kid’s little league team this time next year. Pivetta got the ball Sunday and turned in the most Nick Pivetta start that ever did Nick Pivetta. 5 innings, 3 runs, seven hits, and 98 pitches. Meh.
The big news of the weekend came down on Saturday when it was announced that backup catcher and clubhouse favorite Kevin Plawecki had been DFA’ed bringing his 3-year run with the Red Sox to a close. Releasing a backup catcher on a team that’s 4 games under .500 in September is generally not met with much fanfare, but this was different. Plawecki was a pillar in the clubhouse, and his release frustrated at least a few players, Nate Eovaldi and Rich Hill among them. Both pitchers (who are free agents at the end of the year) expressed frustration over the decision, specifically the timing. One would have to think other players feel similarly.
From what I’ve gathered by doing about 5 minutes of internet research is that the outspoken players didn’t necessarily have an issue with Plawecki being released, but more with the decision to do it now, 3 weeks before the end of the season that’s been unofficially over for some time now. The unspoken question that rang through their answers was “what does this accomplish?”
I don’t have a real opinion on the matter. I checked out on the 2022 version of this team somewhere around the All-Star Break. What I am concerned with, however, is how this decision will affect the team’s ability to sign free agents (players talk) and, more importantly, their ability to resign/extend their own guys. I’d hate to lose out on Xander Bogaerts this winter because the way they handled Plawecki left a bad taste in his mouth.
There’s a certain point in a lost season when decisions have to be made looking toward the following year more than the current campaign. I know it, the players know it and the front office knows it. The 2022 Red Sox hit that point and pissed off half of their fanbase and their entire team when they traded Vasquez in early August. If they completely pulled the plug and sent Eovaldi and JD Martinez packing, too, I think the guys that stuck around would have been frustrated but at least understood that the front office had turned the page to 2023. But then they brought in McGuire to catch (who has been good), Tommy Pham to play corner outfield (who has been Tommy Pham), and Eric Hosmer to play first (who stinks). Not exactly waving the white flag.
So what the hell are they doing on Jersey Street? It seems like they are doing everything you’d find in a handbook titled “Things to do as a GM to piss off your whole team.” This is a pivotal offseason for the organization with Bogaerts surely electing free agency and an extension for Devers needing to happen in the next three months to avoid letting him enter his walk year. You’d think the organization would be doing all the little things to keep their players happy. Instead, they’re doing the exact opposite.
