GIVE THESE KIDS A CHANCE
“They could be incredible, they could be a disaster, or somewhere in-between. No matter what, they’ll probably surprise you. Perhaps even shock the world.”
That’s how last year’s State of the Sox ended, and it turned out to be true.
The 2023 Red Sox were truly somewhere in-between, often incredible, but ultimately not enough to outweigh the disasters that befell them along the way.
Much has changed since the season ended. Chaim Bloom is out, Craig Breslow is in, Theo Epstein is back in (as a part-owner). Chris Sale is gone and Lucas Giolito is here, but won’t pitch at all in the first year of his two-year contract.
Yet the overall question remains the same: are the Red Sox underwhelming or underdogs?
They’ve leaned towards the latter for most of spring training, and while preseason games don’t count, they can provide some indication of player readiness. Rafael Devers and Trevor Story look ready to anchor the offense, and the young core is growing stronger with Triston Casas, Jarren Duran, and Ceddanne Rafaela coming into their own. Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Tanner Houck have pitched quite well; Crawford owns a 1.98 ERA, 13 strikeouts, and hasn’t issued a walk over 13 2/3 innings. Garrett Whitlock is a pitcher transformed, Connor Wong is having a standout spring, hitting .433 with a 1.302 OPS and leading the team with six doubles entering Thursday.
The Red Sox farm system is deeper than it’s been in years, providing necessary depth for the inevitable injuries that occur during a 162-game campaign, and affording them more trade opportunities. Their top three prospects, Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel are getting closer to the Majors.
However, Sox leadership publicly pointed to areas of need early in the offseason, and it’s likely they didn’t adequately address them. They declared starting pitching a top priority, but the Sale trade coupled with Giolito’s unexpected surgery essentially comes to a loss, rather than zero-sum for the arms department. The ‘23 Red Sox were the sixth-worst team in the American League in home runs, then let sluggers Justin Turner and Adam Duvall depart in free agency, and did little to replace them.
Ultimately though, the biggest issue with the 2024 Red Sox has nothing to do with the roster. Ownership was already out of legs to stand on before they decided to to set their own spending restrictions, keeping payroll tens of millions below the Competitive Balance Threshold this year. Tom Werner promised a “full throttle” offseason in November, only to walk it back in January, executives around the league shook their heads and wondered why the Red Sox keep letting their bigmarket muscles atrophy. Principal owner John Henry has done little to refute claims that he no longer prioritizes the goose that lay Fenway Sports Group’s golden
eggs; he skipped Winter Weekend, only to participate in a PGA panel days later.
Simultaneously, the Red Sox are introducing a “very modest, low single-digit increase on season ticket prices” for the fourth consecutive season, president and CEO Sam Kennedy announced at the end-of-season press conference on Oct. 2. Fenway Park is already one of the most expensive ballpark experiences in the game, and for many, it’s not worth the cost or hassle when losing is the most consistent thing about the home team. The Red Sox have finished last in the AL East in three of the past four years and are projected to do so again this season. By mid-September, Sox-Yankees tickets were going for a buck plus fees on apps like Gametime. Droves of fans of visiting teams such as the Dodgers and Astros likely accounted for the incremental improvement in attendance over the previous year, when the Sox put up their worst home attendance since 2000, two years before current ownership’s inaugural season.
As of Tuesday, there were plenty of tickets available for the Apr. 9 home opener.
Since trading Mookie Betts four Februaries ago, the Red Sox have asked the Fenway Faithful to trust the process, be patient, and buy into a vision that has yet to materialize. For many fan bases – and Sox fans pre-2004 – four years is a drop in the bucket, and a $200 million payroll is a spending spree. But the Red Sox aren’t most teams, and their fans didn’t set the standards to which they’re trying to hold them, ownership did. They expected last-second failure and heartbreak for 86 years before FSG swooped in and saved Fenway from the wrecking ball, ended the 86-year curse, and spent year after year to bring home four trophies in 15 years. Henry and Co. reinvented the wheel; they can’t act surprised when their paying customers expect them to keep the good times rolling.
Perhaps the return of Epstein, now as a part-owner with Fenway Sports Group, will improve matters. It’s hard to see the architect of the ‘04 and ‘07 championships, a Brookline, Mass., native who grew up rooting for the Sox, agreeing to reattach himself to the organization without a guarantee that he could affect about real change; Kennedy even admitted that they begged their former general manager to buy in.
Regardless, it’s unfortunate that upper-level issues with ownership and the front office are overshadowing a team full of exciting young talent.
Whatever the 2024 Red Sox turn out to be, these players deserve a chance to show you themselves.