Wow, okay, first off, I NEED to start shortening my time between blogs. Let’s just lead with that, you can all get your criticisms out of the way now, and then we can spend the next couple of minutes going through, in painstaking detail, what my favorite baseball team has put me through this off-season, and what in the world could be coming this spring. All done? Great.
So the beginning of this piece will be in three parts, presented in a similar way. Notable players the Red Sox have lost to free agency or trades under this new ownership group. Notable players the Red Sox have added, and, what will arguably be the most painful of all, notable players the Red Sox were attached to that fell through at some point over the summer. It’s also worth noting, just as a general gripe at Craig Breslow, the Red Sox don’t even have a “real” General Manager yet. That’s one of those jobs that, generally speaking, it’s good to have someone handling if you’re a sports franchise, or really any business of any kind.
Departures:
1B/DH Justin Turner (Toronto Blue Jays)
SP Corey Kluber (Retired)
SP Chris Sale (Atlanta Braves)
OF Alex Verdugo (New York Yankees)
On paper, that looks relatively inoffensive. Kluber was old, Turner is old, and Sale is old and no one REALLY knows the state of his left arm beside him. So, sure, the Red Sox didn’t lose a ton, and as you’ll see in the next section, they didn't exactly add nothing to the team, either. The only thing that will grind the gears of any sensible Red Sox fan (or fan of baseball front office strategy) is trading Verdugo to the Yankees, effectively neutralizing any positive return the Sox had from trading franchise centerpiece Mookie Betts. What I do want you to focus on, however, is the caliber of player that’s being considered “notable” these days for an organization that, not even six years ago, had pride and was respected as a major player in all off-season moves.
Additions:
OF Tyler O’Neill (St. Louis Cardinals)
IF Vaughn Grissom (Atlanta Braves)
RP Liam Hendriks (Chicago White Sox/Free Agent)
SP Lucas Giolito (Cleveland Guardians/Free Agent)
So the Red Sox added an everyday outfielder who I think most baseball fans would agree is about as middle of the road as they get, a middle infield prospect who admittedly, I am excited about, a starter who hasn’t had an ERA below 3 since 2017, and a veteran reliever who won’t throw until the All-Star break. This is the same organization that employed combinations of Rafael Devers/Xander Bogaerts/Mookie Betts/Chris Sale, and David Ortiz/Dustin Pedroia/Kevin Youkilis/Jon Lester and somehow, it just doesn’t really feel like it anymore. There’s a lack of sheen and luster around the free agency period these days. Gone are the days of the Sox being considered a major market for free agents or trade targets, as some of the brightest stars have either left on their own or been traded for returns worth a fraction of their value. There’s absolutely a world where Vaughn Grissom shuts me up and puts up one of the better seasons that the Red Sox have had from a middle infielder since Bogaerts’ departure for San Diego (and a reunion with Don Orsillo, I miss you both so much).
But it just doesn’t feel the same. Even when I was hearing rumors about the biggest names in baseball free agency having the Red Sox as a potential destination to land, I didn’t even believe it in the same way that I used to. And speaking of the list of players that were attached to the Red Sox if for but a moment, let’s go through what will absolutely be the most painful part of this piece of writing for any Red Sox fan.
Couldn’t Be Caught:
SP/DH Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers)
OF Teoscar Hernandez (Los Angeles Dodgers)
OF Cody Bellinger (Chicago Cubs)
OF Jung-Hoo Lee (San Francisco Giants)
SP Aaron Nola (Philadelphia Phillies)
SP Sonny Gray (St. Louis Cardinals)
SP Marcus Stroman (New York Yankees)
SP Shota Imanga (Chicago Cubs)
SP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Los Angeles Dodgers)
DH Jorge Soler (San Francisco Giants)
Yeah. That’s a real list of players who at least had Boston as a potential destination during their discussions. Hernandez WAS a member of the Red Sox at one point, basically. Chicago and Bellinger were looking for every single reason not to reunite and they did. The New Balance headquarters are IN BOSTON, and Shohei Ohtani IS New Balance in its modern era (away from basketball anyway). Now sure, we don’t know what Imanga or Yamamoto or Lee will be in the MLB, guys that come over from Japan usually have some undeniable skill based purely on the amount of time they’ve put in as a youth.
But that’s not to say they come over and dominate for the entirety of their careers. Daisuke Matsuzaka was a celebrity in Japan before he boarded his flight to Boston, and he had a perfectly acceptable career as a mid-rotation starter on very good Red Sox teams, but he wasn’t who some likely expected him to be. More recently same can be said for Masahiro Tanaka (notably) of the Yankees, who was lauded as a completely dominant force during his legendary high school career, and when upon arriving in New York he was just…good? He also could not stay healthy and he’s since returned to Japan after just six seasons in the Bronx. I mean, there are also guys like Ichiro, who is perhaps the most legendary countryman from a place where they treat baseball like a religion.
So there’s really not much to say in terms of what we can realistically expect from these guys. But what can be said is how now, coming up on six years removed from one of the greatest and most dominant baseball teams ever assembled (up there with their 2007 counterparts), the Boston Red Sox are in a completely different place now, and I haven’t a clue what to do as a fan.
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