Boos, cheers kick off Winter Weekend
SPRINGFIELD >> “Well, it’s always great to turn the page.”
That was how Sam Kennedy began his and chairman Tom Werner’s joint media availability at Red Sox Winter Weekend on Friday night. Alex Cora and Craig Breslow followed, individually.
The ‘turn the page’ mantra is one Red Sox leadership has used countless times over four years of disappointments, departures, lowballing, costcutting and three lastplace finishes. Save for Rafael Devers, the Red Sox have said goodbye to every member of their 2018 championship team. They’ve eschewed extravagant spending almost entirely, and committed to a more significant rebuild than what they presented to the public.
“We don’t want this to be a long rebuilding process,” Werner told NESN in September 2020. “We don’t have any excuses, we’ve got a lot of assets, and as everybody knows, we spend and we’re not a small-market team.”
Perhaps finally, the brass is seeing how far they’ve fallen in the eyes of their fans. They fielded questions in the bowels of the MassMutual Center, knowing that the event beginning above them wasn’t sold out. They’ve seen the vitriol and outrage on social media. They want fans to know that they hear them.
“We recognize the results have been completely and totally unacceptable,” Kennedy said. “And that’s on us. We’re the leaders of this organization. There’s no sugarcoating it, we have to be better.”
“We’re grateful to our fans for their patience, and we recognize we’ve been, we haven’t been where we wanted to be in the American League East, and that’s on us, and on nobody else,” he added.
Since the calendar flipped to 2024, the Red Sox have been more open about the rebuild, likely because it’s finally coming to fruition in the form of elite prospects such as Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel. Whereas Chaim Bloom inherited a No. 30 farm system in 2019, Baseball America and FanGraphs now rank Boston No. 5 and No. 2, respectively.
“We’ve been ferociously protecting prospects in our minor league system for a long time, going back to 2020, 2021,” Kennedy said. “I think we’re at the stage now where you’re starting to see the results of holding onto young, talented players.”
“There’s a ton of excitement around this emerging core,” Breslow said. “We also recognize the importance of bringing in additional star power, but I think when you put all of those things together, it takes a lot for external acquisitions to line up.”
Would public perception be different if the Red Sox had called a spade a spade four years ago? There’s been a historic change in standard since current ownership bought the team, 80-plus years into a World Series drought. After nearly a century of expecting to lose, this city now expects winning. And the last two decades have shown that the Red Sox win when they spend.
“The prize at the end of the year doesn’t go to the team with the highest payroll,” said Werner. “In fact, the three teams with the highest payroll last year didn’t even make the postseason.”
“People equate spending, sort of aggressive spending, with trying, and I get that,” Kennedy said. “We own that, because we haven’t matched up on big, boffo long-term contracts. There may be a perception that we’re not trying, and I can assure you that we are trying. We’re building an organization that Red Sox fans are gonna be very proud of. But again, it’s easy to say that. We have to go do that.”
He would only answer “not enough” when asked what Boston offered Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who received a 12-year, $325 million contract from the Dodgers. However, there’s something to be said for not throwing enormous contracts around just because the Red Sox can. (Fans are quick to forget how furious they were when Pablo Sandoval didn’t pan out, or how frustrated they were with David Price for much of his then-record deal.)
“There are certain players that would make sense to aggressively pursue in the offseason, and others that wouldn’t for a variety of reasons. Age, stage of career, sort of the cycle of where we are, the progression ” Kennedy said, explaining why the Red Sox haven’t simply thrown money at free agents this winter. But he emphatically answered “absolutely” when asked if the team will even pursue top-tier additions again.
“Our job in ownership and senior management is to be accountable to Red Sox fans,” he added. “We’re gonna hear it tonight, I’m sure. That’s why we’re here.”
Later in the evening, Kennedy and Breslow joined Jonathan Papelbon and Tom Caron onstage to a mixture of boos and applause. “Get some pitching,” one fan shouted. “Chaim Bloom 2.0,” another screamed at Breslow. Then, as they finished their segment and left the stage, “Where’s John Henry?”
In other words, until things change on the field, they will remain very much the same.
But in positive ways, too. After Kennedy and Breslow had been taken to task by the audience, the Red Sox played their tribute video for Tim Wakefield, who passed away on the final day of the ’23 season. Immediately and in unison, the crowd was on their feet, and remained standing until the end. For a moment, the arena was almost silent, unsure of how to continue the night.
Then, almost as loudly as a packed house at Fenway Park, the crowd began to chant, “Let’s go Red Sox! Let’s go Red Sox! Let’s go Red Sox!”
Proving that as much as fans may be unhappy with the Red Sox, they still love them even more.