As high school students, where most of us have grown up in the Massachusetts area, we have lived our whole lives where Boston’s sports teams have dominated the competition. For years, we grew up with legends like Tom Brady, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, David Ortiz, and Patrice Bergeron, contributing to the city’s legacy as “Title Town”.
And as we’re growing up, we’re entering a new era of Boston sports. The Jays, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, brought home the Celtics 18th banner earlier this year. The Bruins have consistently been a top team in the NHL for years now. And the Patriots have seemingly drafted their quarterback of the future in Drake Maye.
However, the Red Sox seem to have no direction. Ever since they won it all in 2018, it seems as though the Red Sox can’t commit to winning.
And as a ride or die fan for as long as I’ve been alive, I’m furious with what the front office has done with the organization. John Henry, owner of the ball club, also owns other sports teams, including Liverpool FC and the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with owning the Boston Globe. This is too much. His attention is diverted from Boston, and it isn’t fair to fans and athletes who want to compete to win.
The past few years in Boston haven’t been very bright. Aside from what’s shaking out to be a fluke year in 2021, Boston hasn’t finished the year above .500 once since 2020, and have finished last in the American League East 3 out of 4 seasons. And the talent hasn’t been there either, with stars like Rafael Devers and promising young players like Jarren Duran being surrounded by guys with lackluster performances.
John Henry’s only concern, it seems, is spending the least amount of money on the Red Sox as he can. According to a report from Sporting News, Henry asked Red Sox scouts to take pay cuts in order to stay with the team. There’s no need for this. According to the same article from Sporting News, the Boston Red Sox are currently the third most valuable major league baseball franchise. Yet, they’re run as a small market team, as if they aren’t worth a ton of money.
Additionally, ownership has let so many of our star players walk in free agency, and not offered them either. Some notable names we let go just in the past 4 years include former MVP Mookie Betts, homegrown legend Xander Bogaerts, Andrew Benintendi, Chris Sale, and Nathan Eovaldi, just to name a few. And many of these players went on to excel after leaving Boston. Take Chris Sale for example. He won his first Cy Young award on Wednesday night in his first year out of Boston.
With the 2024 season wrapping up with the Fall Classic, we saw many former Sox starring on the biggest stage. Kike Hernandez, key member of the 2021 squad, shinned in this year’s playoffs as he always does. Other players include Betts, Joe Kelley, and former Sox fan favorite Alex Verdugo.
We’ve seen a ton of talent come through Boston throughout the years, and it’s such a shame ownership doesn’t pay our guys. It’s time for a change. Something has to happen up front or else even more people will start losing hope as well. The city should be outraged with the direction of the team right now. I need to see some effort from Henry to try and make a splash, and commit to paying guys who can help us win. Boston hasn’t seen that from the Red Sox in a long time. We’ve grown up with Sox dominance, and there was no need to change that with poor spending.
Antonio • Dec 11, 2024 at 5:20 pm
I agree Michael, the Red Sox are not willing to spend money on the top players in their organization. They should have kept Mookie Betts and built a dynamic duo on offense (Mookie + Devers) at the top of their lineup. As far as the pitching, we had it good with Sale, but he just need a change of teams to have a better season. I do like however Breslow gets it done with trades, now having Garrett Crochet from Chicago. I wonder now if they spend money on free agency and will they extend their current players.