Article: Breaking Down Sam Kennedy’s Comments on the 2025 Season

[Alex Mayes]

Sam Kennedy appeared on "The Fenway Rundown" on Monday to give a quick interview before the season gets underway.

On Monday, Sam Kennedy appeared in his regular beginning-of-the-season interview with Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo on MassLive.com’s "The Fenway Rundown." They covered a lot of ground in the 27-minute interview, so let’s jump right into some of the quotes that stood out.

 “Given what a great job our baseball operations group have done in player development; we have guys who are knocking on the door in terms of coming up from the minor league.”

• We’ll start here because this is a given, considering the current crop of talent in the minor league system. Kristian Campbell already has the Opening Day roster nod, with Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony are primed for a breakout at Triple-A. It wouldn’t be a shock at all to see all of the Big Three in Boston sooner rather than later this season. The pitching depth at the minor league level has grown over the last couple of seasons, and there are younger members of the team at the lower level who seem to be on the cusp of their own breakout seasons.

“I think we have had a reputation here over the last couple of decades for being an organization that needs to be held accountable to put a team on the field that can play in October. And that’s where we feel we are today. Again, it means nothing until we go out and do it, but that’s the expectation.”

• I like hearing Kennedy say that the way to prove the organization is headed in the right direction is to play baseball in October. I've been saying this for quite some time as we've reacted and overreacted to various roster moves. On paper, this should be one of the best teams in the American League, if not the best. Failure to live up to that hype after all the moves could mean sweeping changes at multiple levels of the organization. This fan base has been begging for meaningful baseball and it finally feels like we’re going to get that in 2025.

“The best organizations in baseball that I’ve observed from my time in the game going to the early 1990s is when you have that stability in baseball…when you have a great working relationship between the general manager and the manager…it feels great that we’re hopefully marching towards some long-term stability in baseball operations.”

• After the turnover in the president of baseball operations role in Boston, it’s nice to hear Kennedy say that there is some stability in the upper levels of the organization. Yes, the audit that Craig Breslow started when he was hired has been completed and people have been reassigned or let go, but having cohesion between the General Manager/POBO, the team manager, and the ownership group is crucial to success on the field.

“Look, I think Raffy did exactly what we would have expected and what superstar players do. He’s putting winning and the team above all else. It doesn’t mean he is going to agree with every decision. Doesn’t mean he’s not one of the more competitive people on the planet…this guy wants to win championships and he’s a championship-caliber player…he ultimately has put the team above himself and his own personal situation, and we expect that he’ll continue to do that.”

• It took a while to get to the Rafael Devers situation but I again think that Kennedy hit the nail on the head here. Devers put the team’s needs above his personal wants and decided to swap positions to designated hitter to accommodate Alex Bregman and his Gold Glove  defense at third. Devers is a competitor and likely wants to prove the doubters wrong when it comes to his ability to play third base but at the end of the day, he needs to do what is asked of him, even if he disagrees with it at times.

“We’re really thrilled to have Garrett [Crochet] anchor our rotation in 2025. We will keep the conversations around an extension or contract or any of that in-house and private. I will say from talking to Garrett, his wife Rachel, being around them, seeing their reaction to coming to Boston for our FanFest, seeing them down in spring training, this would be a great place for him for the long term. Hopefully, he feels that way as well…We have to be concerned about everything, including the factors you point to [getting closer to free agency, the top five prospects dealt for two years of control] but I think these conversations in my 24 years here have taken all forms…I remember getting a deal done with Dustin Pedroia at the All-Star break. I was talking to Theo Epstein about a deal that got done, I think, in April with Clay Bucholz, even though there had been discussions about not continuing conversations. I seem to remember a manager of ours more recently signing a contract extension in the middle of the season, even though he said he wasn’t going to. So you just don’t know where these things are going to go.”

• I combined two sets of quotes for this one because it all centers around Garrett Crochet, his extension, and the deadline for talks he  recently set. I believe that an extension with Crochet will get done at some point during the season, with a small possibility that it gets completed before first pitch on Thursday. Setting a deadline of Opening Day to end discussions seems more like a hardball tactic than anything else. As Kennedy pointed out, there have been numerous situations over previous seasons where players and managers have said they didn’t want to talk extension only for their agent to continue talking to the team and getting a deal worked out. The Red Sox would be foolish to trade for Crochet without getting him extended, especially considering what they gave up to get him.

“Without getting into specifics, extending our own players is definitely a priority if at all possible. The hallmark of a great Red Sox team, in our experience, is one that is full of homegrown guys all over the diamond, full of international signees, and full of free agents that come in from other places. But we absolutely have to have that core.”

• This came after Kennedy declined to speak to specifics about extensions with players. You’d have to assume the thought here is to extend the Big Three fairly quickly if given the chance. There are other top contributors who could qualify for this that are currently on the roster — Tanner Houck, Connor Wong, Triston Casas — but the ship seems to have sailed on a Casas extension, and you would think they would have locked Houck up immediately after the 2024 season if they were going to. Wong is intriguing because if his defensive adjustments stick, then he is likely in the elite catcher status for 2025 and it would be smart to get him under contract as the catching position as a whole seems to be on a downhill slide.

“I can tell you that they [the new City Connect uniforms] will be controversial. And I think you’re on the right track in terms of the color scheme that you mentioned [green]…I will say, though, nothing can be more controversial than bright yellow…I always have to remind people like my dad and others, you know, these uniforms are not for you. They are for the players and for that next generation of fans…I think there might be a theme with a certain wall in left field.”

• Outside of the Crochet extension talks, this was the part of the podcast I was most excited to hear. I’m a jersey guy, always have been. I’m so excited for a green City Connect jersey this season and I love that the yellows are part of the home rotation moving forward. I agree with Kennedy that the City Connects aren’t for everyone, but the fact that the Red Sox seem to be pretty bold with their design choices show that they are really trying to get the next generation of baseball fans interested in the team. A brand new City Connect colorway is likely to be another big step in the right direction.

Sam Kennedy was more guarded in this interview than he had been in previous appearances on "The Fenway Rundown," but for good reason. Sometimes, those passing comments have gotten him in hot water with fans. It’s refreshing to hear that the front office thinks this team is built to play October baseball, and we can only hope that the Red Sox will live up to that hype.

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[Bellhorn04]

Sam Kennedy is actually the last man on Earth I expect to get good insight on the Sox from. 😄 

[mvp 78]

Just now, Bellhorn04 said:

Sam Kennedy is actually the last man on Earth I expect to get good insight on the Sox from. 😄 

I can't even trust him about the jerseys TBH.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

What's so controversial about green jerseys? The Sox already sell plenty of green caps.

At least green shirts are better than yellow -- and some fans buy those, too.

[mvp 78]

5 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

What's so controversial about green jerseys? The Sox already sell plenty of green caps.

At least green shirts are better than yellow -- and some fans buy those, too.

It's not just the color, they may be really awful to look at even ignoring the color. The Sox have sold green jerseys before that were popular.

[Nick]

I don't think any baseball people for Red Sox tell Kennedy anything. He seems uninformed.

 

[Nick]

Off topic.

Does anyone know why Newcomb started 31 games for Atlanta in 2018 but was jettisoned to the pen in 2019? What gives?

He had a pretty good year as a starter.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, Nick said:

Off topic.

Does anyone know why Newcomb started 31 games for Atlanta in 2018 but was jettisoned to the pen in 2019? What gives?

He had a pretty good year as a starter.

He was demoted after a rough April start and the Braves had a rotation of Tehera, Soroka, Fried, Foltynewicz and Gausman/Keuchel that pitched well. He was going to return to the rotation at one point but was hit in the head with a line drive. 

[Nick]

12 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

He was demoted after a rough April start and the Braves had a rotation of Tehera, Soroka, Fried, Foltynewicz and Gausman/Keuchel that pitched well. He was going to return to the rotation at one point but was hit in the head with a line drive. 

Thank you!

 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

54 minutes ago, Nick said:

I don't think any baseball people for Red Sox tell Kennedy anything. He seems uninformed.

 

That's it -- when reporters asked Sam about being uninformed, he pretended they said uniformed, so he could promote the green shirts. He's working in the wrong city...

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I can't even trust him about the jerseys TBH.

I don’t think Sam Kennedy is even his real name…

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, notin said:

I don’t think Sam Kennedy is even his real name…

I'm comin' out blastin' like Yosemite Sam
Get tha cheese an tha bread for tha ham