My first blog is going to be about something that I’ve cared about deeply my entire life: The Boston Red Sox. It’s not going to be a complimentary piece, more an examination into the actions necessary to completely ruin a team and alienate a fanbase in a few short moves.
The 2022 offseason has been an abject disaster thus far for the Red Sox. Sure, they bolstered the bullpen, an area that has plagued the team since 2019 (more below) by signing Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin. They also brought in a Japanese import who hates striking out, Masataka Yoshida. But, when we look back in 5 years, the move we will all remember is that they let Xander Bogaerts walk away to the San Diego Padres. Xander was for all intents and purposes the team captain, someone who everyone in the clubhouse looked up to. And they lost him for nothing.
To examine what exactly went wrong for the Red Sox in the 2022 offseason, we have to go back to a time where all fans of the Sox were elated. December of 2018. We can theoretically go back even further, but I have a full time job I am neglecting and need to get back to.
Just months after winning their fourth World Series title since 2000, Boston GM Dave Dombrowski elected to re-sign pitchers Nate Eovaldi and Chris Sale, while letting relievers Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel walk. This is a decision that altered the course of the franchise for the four (and counting) years that followed. 2019 was a disappointing follow up to the World Series.
Dave Dombrowski was fired (allegedly more for off the field relationships than and wrongdoing committed as the GM).
Chaim Bloom was hired.
The owners (Fenway Sports Group) dodged and deflected tough questions with grace, as nobody leaving that press conference knew exactly what would lie ahead.
“You might actually be right for once in that I don’t plan what I’m going to say before answering media questions in a live media event. But this focus on CBT resides with the media far more than it does within the Sox. I think every team probably wants to reset at least once every three years — that’s sort of been the history — but just this week…I reminded baseball ops that we are focused on competitiveness over the next 5 years over and above resetting to which they said, ’That’s exactly how we’ve been approaching it.’ ”
“You seem to think Chaim was brought in to reduce payroll. That has simply not been the way FSG operates here or across the pond. We try to act responsibly so as to be consistently competitive. Your main point seems to be that I accidentally disclosed a secret plan but unlike you, I am honest about Sox issues. The question was asked and I answered it.”
This was John Henry’s quote back in January of 2020. Clearly, this is a man who knows what everyone knew: the Red Sox would be operating completely differently moving forward. Henry viewed Dombrowski’s method as reckless, and wanted to merge the stylings of a big market club with the Tampa Bay Rays’ model. The only problem is (and I have the same problem with the entire Moneyball strategy) that method has been proven to not work. Sure, the Rays are competitive year in and year out, but they never accomplish the true goal of winning it all. Maybe that’s what the Rays’ owners want, after all, a solid if not excellent product on the field that keeps fans engaged but doesn’t do so well that the fans actually expect something.
Jerry Reinsdorf, the Chicago White Sox owner once said that every owner’s goal should be to finish in second place. This way you can say you were on the doorstep of greatness but never have to spend the actual money required to get over the top. But any non-casual fan can see the truth which is that since 2003, no team outside of the top 15 in payroll has won a World Series. Sure, you can spend the league average amount and hope some magic breaks your way, but by and large you have to spend to win.
The Red Sox had just followed up a franchise best 2018 where they went 108-54 en route to a World Series with a paltry 84-78 record in 2019. Mookie Betts was entering his final season under contract, and the team and Betts appeared to be about $100 million apart in negotiations. As a Sox fan, I remembered the Jon Lester negotiations in 2014. The Red Sox offered an insulting 4 year / $70,000,000 extension, a slap in the face and a message sent clearly across the bow: Jon Lester would not be part of the Red Sox’ plans after 2015. And so, he was gone, but with Betts, surely, they had to at least bridge the $100 million gap that existed and come to some sort of agreement. Right? RIGHT!?!?!?
Wrong.
About a month later, Mookie Betts was shown the door. Instead of getting an actual return for him, they elected to trade David Price’s albatross of a contract (7 years / $210,000,000 which was given directly after letting Lester walk) to the Dodgers, which greatly reduced any prospect package the team would get for the 2018 MVP Betts. Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong. Three players who will be remembered for the rest of their careers as being the return for Mookie Betts, future Hall of Famer.
The messaging was clear from John Henry: this was a move that HAD to be made
“Free agency plays into many decisions clubs like ours have to make. Today’s players spend years in the Minor and Major Leagues earning the right to be paid in a free market, earning the right to make choices. They make significant sacrifices to get there and they deserve what they receive. Clubs also have choices to make as well in this economic system.”
After planting the seeds of a Betts trade for a year, the deed had finally been done. But don’t worry Red Sox fans, this move was made so that we could keep our other two franchise cornerstones, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, in Sox uniforms. Right? RIGHT!?!?!?
Wrong.
After a brutal 2020 in a COVID shortened season, magic appeared to strike the Sox once again. The team was two games away from yet another World Series appearance in 2021, and the team seemed to be a move or two away from winning another ring. Chaim Bloom’s under the radar approach was working. Kiké Hernandez, Hunter Renfroe, and Kyle Schwarber had Red Sox Nation believing the bill of goods that was sold to us pre-2020: we can spend a little less money and still compete for World Series titles regularly.
The 2021 offseason was incredibly underwhelming. The team lost SP Eduardo Rodriguez and traded RF Hunter Renfoe in one of the most confusing, short-sighted trades you’ll ever see. The team brought back CF Jackie Bradley in addition to two lower-level minor league prospects. This sent mixed messaging to the fanbase. Sure, there was part of us that was happy to have JBJ back, but Renfroe was so good in his lone season here… Surely this had to be part of a master plan, right? RIGHT!?!?!?
Wrong.
After a multiple month-long lockout, the Sox brought in SS Trevor Story… to play second base…
Now wait a second. Scroll up a few paragraphs, didn’t we say something about the Mookie Betts trade allowing the Red Sox to keep their other two cornerstones, Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers? Then why would we sign a shortstop to a massive 6-year contract to play second base? Make it make sense! While Story was good (when he played), he was no Xander. Story ended up being one of the best defensive second basemen in the league, seeming like the perfect double play partner to pair with X for years to come.
What we should’ve known at the time of this signing would become increasingly evident as the 2022 season rolled on. Xander Bogaerts would be gone after the season. It was a truth we should’ve all seen every time Bogaerts answered questions RE: Story or his contract status post 2022. As he should’ve, X saw signing Story as a slap in the face. After all, the contract he was very publicly looking for was very similar to the 6 year / $140,000,000 contract signed by Story in March.
Instead, the Red Sox offered Bogaerts a 4 year / $90,000,000 extension, viewed by everyone in the industry as a low-ball, slap in the face type of offer. It was the kind of offer you make to say you made an offer, even if you had no actual intention of the player taking it. By the time the 2022 offseason rolled around, the Sox were in the dumpster again. 78-84, and last place in the AL East. Fans and players alike agreed on one thing: you extend Bogaerts, you extend Devers, and allow “Chaim to cook”, a phrase I’ve heard endlessly for 3+ years since he was hired. The Red Sox appeared to be getting close to a Bogaerts extension, until the San Diego Padres came around with a ridiculous 11 year / $280,000,000 deal, a deal which blew the Sox’ final offer out of the water (6 years / $160,000,000).
So, for the third time in 10 years, the Red Sox lost a franchise player. An ownership group that began as a group that had an insatiable desire to win now seems like they are just trying to break even, while they venture into other sports. Rafael Devers and the Red Sox are currently “galaxies apart” on an extension, which is something that we heard in 2014 with Lester, in 2019 with Betts, and in 2022 with Bogaerts. The Sox WILL NOT bend. They believe Devers is a $200-250 million player, while Devers commands $300+ million. Inevitably, he will be traded before the 2023 season kicks off, or he will play the year out in an awkward fashion. Either way, things are headed to one place: Rafael Devers wearing a different uniform in 2024. No one will address the elephant in the room, and the Sox will finish with somewhere between 70 and 85 wins, just enough for the owners to sell the fans hope for 2024 while they raise the ticket prices another 5% and rake in that cash required to set up an expansion NBA team in Las Vegas with Lebron James. Lebron, a guy who has called the entire city of Boston racist on multiple occasions, but that is another story for another time.
I wish I could have hope. I wish we had owners who cared as much as Steve Cohen cares about the Mets or Peter Seidler cares about the Padres. Or even as much as John Henry cared about the Red Sox in 2004. But alas, we have nothing. Don’t get me wrong, things could be worse. There are quite a few owners who care less about the product on the field than Henry and co. But for a Boston team to operate like they are in a small market is insulting.
I wish the fanbase shared my contempt for ownership. I wish people didn’t treat Fenway Park as a museum, a place you take your kids on a Sunday afternoon to see the old seats and the Green Monster. But they don’t. They will keep attending games. They will keep buying merchandise. They will keep John Henry’s pockets fat enough that he can go spend $4 billion on an NBA franchise. Nothing will change.
I’ll end by saying this: Chaim Bloom, it is not your fault (entirely). You were put in an un-winnable situation by people who never wanted you to succeed. You’ll be fired at some point in 2023, once Devers is officially gone, and ownership will start anew: selling fans on a new GM and a re-invigorated desire to win.
And they’ll be lying through their teeth.
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