Henry: ‘legitimate offers’ made
Says players just want free agency
FORT MYERS — Red Sox ownership was adamant Monday that getting under the $208 million competitive balance tax threshold for 2020 was not the driving factor behind the decision to trade Mookie Betts to the Dodgers, and that receiving significant value for the superstar as he heads into free agency next winter was a primary objective.
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Principal owner John Henry said that the team made “legitimate offers over three offseasons” in an attempt to hold on to Betts, who seemed to be intent on testing the free-agent market. The Red Sox did not reveal any details about their negotiations with Betts, but insisted they did not want to give him up.
“We made it clear to Mookie, I made it personally clear one-on-one, that we wanted to see him in a Red
Sox uniform for the rest of his life if possible,” Henry said. “But … we live in a different world today. Players spend so many years being underpaid in the system that we have that when they get to free agency they’ve earned the right to maximize their chances of being paid maximum amount.”
Red Sox president Sam Kennedy echoed that sentiment.
“Mookie and his representatives definitely knew of our desire to try to make Mookie Betts part of our Red Sox family for life,” Kennedy said. “That’s for sure. We’ll leave it at that and express our gratitude. He leaves Boston a World Series champion, an MVP, a great person and a great player.”
When Betts becomes a free agent next offseason, the Red Sox will ironically have the flexibility and the room they created by dealing him that would be necessary to bring him back to Boston. But when asked if that was a possibility, Kennedy didn’t answer directly.
“We can’t talk about a player with another organization but if you look back to 2002, the Red Sox have been in the top five of payroll,” Kennedy said. “This club will have a payroll at or above $200 million. These guys have never, ever shied away from spending when appropriate, when strategic, for trying to win in October.”
Investigation length no surprise
The Red Sox still believe their 2018 championship was not tainted.
Asked if the team’s stance has changed due to commissioner Rob Manfred’s comments that the investigation has taken longer than expected because of a few new things he discovered, Henry said it hasn’t.
“I think if there’s one thing we learned from the Astros investigation it’s that Major League Baseball is extraordinarily thorough, so it’s not overly surprising that it’s not done yet,” Henry said. “But I don’t think anything from our standpoint has changed.”
Neither Henry, chairman Tom Werner nor Kennedy said they’ve been interviewed by MLB.
Kennedy was asked why the team has been so confident in the wake of the investigation.
“Again, I don’t know if we appear confident,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to respect the investigation. It’ll play out. Look, we’re responsible and accountable for everything that goes on in this organization, and so that’s our responsibility and one of our responsibilities is to ensure we’re cooperating fully with
Major League Baseball.”
Werner said he’s concerned about the current state of the game, with the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme from 2017 generating a lot of buzz this spring.
“We’re always concerned about baseball,” Werner said. “We’ve talked about it being a great game, but there’s too many headlines in the last month about offfield stuff. Like everybody I’m sorely disappointed in what happened in Houston. I think baseball handled that appropriately.”
Opening message
Interim manager Ron Roenicke didn’t want to get into the details of what he said to the team before its first full-squad workout on Monday morning, but the sense is that there’s a little bit of a chip on their shoulder after last season’s underperformance and all of the adversity that has hit the club this offseason.
“I definitely think a lot of guys are a little bit more hungry than last year in a sense,” said J.D. Martinez. “I’m not saying that our team was complacent last year but I think we were just, in a sense, a little bit more relaxed coming in. I think this year, last year was kind of like a slap in the face, a reality check for us. I think a lot of guys are coming in a lot more determined and ready to go. The team we put on the field last year wasn’t us, it wasn’t our team. It wasn’t our team.” …
Roenicke said he was “really excited” about Chris Sale’s bullpen on Monday.
“He says he feels really good,” Roenicke said. “He’s sleeping really well and really doesn’t feel like he’s that far behind so he’ll play catch the next couple days, probably thrown another bullpen and hopefully it continues to progress like that.” …
Roenicke said Rafael Devers, who is home in the Dominican Republic after the birth of his daughter, is scheduled to arrive to Fort Myers on Thursday.