mvp 78

Who's the Red Sox hater now?

The overall problem is that you need to treat players as human beings and not just as lines on a spreadsheet. That's the pitfall here if they really want success year in and year out. You can use the stats and metrics to your advantage, but you still need to be able to connect with people personally.

That 2021 team had Eovaldi, Sale, Bogey and JD. They weren't exactly running out a small payroll. It was 6th in the league per luxury tax and 3rd in cash.

They are NEVER selling the team. This ballclub and the surrounding properties makes too much money. Breslow is doing exactly what Henry wants him to do. You'll get to gripe about his moves next offseason too.

A monster of an article by Joon Lee. Damn.

Several executives and agents describe Breslow as tethered to the organization’s internal models and, at times, inflexible. In their view, the Red Sox don’t just negotiate cautiously; they negotiate as if deviating from projections is a failure, even when the moment calls for risk. Rival evaluators say the club behaves like an organization waiting for the data to remove all doubt — and in a sport built on varying degrees of uncertainty, that moment never comes. This reputation is registering with players as well. A veteran member of the 2025 team described the club’s approach as “arrogant,” arguing that the front office’s model-driven posture turns information into ironclad dogma. The handling of Bregman was a failure not just to read the market but also an ideological one, with the organization treating free agency like a transaction to be optimized, rather than a relationship to be managed. “It’s ‘Moneyball’ computer beep-boop nonsense,” the veteran player said. Inside the Red Sox, several people point to a larger structural issue. The team is run very differently than Fenway Sports Group’s other flagship property, Liverpool. There, longtime executive Michael Gordon serves as a true bridge between ownership and sporting operations, enforcing budget discipline while empowering soccer leadership to act decisively. In Boston, no such intermediary exists. Major baseball decisions routinely bypass Kennedy and flow directly to John Henry.

When the Red Sox fired Dombrowski in 2019, I was reporting on the team for ESPN. Sources in the front office explicitly said they wanted to recreate the Dodgers model in Boston. The implication was clear: a data-driven, well-funded franchise that had figured out how to marry analytics with sustained financial commitment. The Red Sox wanted to be that. What they became was something different... The Red Sox took a different lesson from the same moment. Flexibility over commitment. Risk management over star retention. The worst outcome not a lost championship, but a bad contract on the books.

As internal resistance to a Betts extension grew, a different story began to circulate publicly: Betts didn’t want to be in Boston. The narrative first surfaced in off-the-record conversations — that Betts preferred to play closer to his hometown of Nashville or wasn’t fully committed to the market. Betts and his inner circle were confused by this narrative. He was direct with those around the team: he wanted to stay in the only place he had known in the majors, and he wanted to be paid at market value.

Having recently committed significant money to core members of the title team, including Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi, (Henry) increasingly viewed long-term contracts as liabilities rather than investments. That philosophical divide marked the beginning of the end of Dombrowski’s tenure and reshaped how the organization spoke about its choices.

But what mattered more was what the Devers trade revealed: an organization unable to articulate a coherent plan, internally or externally. With no single voice owning the decision, confusion spread beyond the clubhouse to agents, rival executives and the fan base.

Around the league, several general managers describe the Red Sox as a franchise embroiled in an identity crisis. They carry the expectations of a big-market team — ticket prices, media scrutiny, historical weight — while behaving like a risk-averse small-market team. The result is a club that neither maximizes its financial advantages nor fully commits to restraint, judging by the $130 million invested in pitcher Ranger Suarez and the total of $7 million spent on free-agent additions Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Danny Coulombe. Spending is reserved for moments when projections suggest overwhelming odds, not merely a competitive window. And as long as Fenway fills, jerseys sell and hope flickers each spring, the model holds. Winning the World Series becomes a nice surprise rather than the goal.

He wasn't doing anything with the players (part of the problem). He did handpick the coaches though.

Marcelo's defense is great. He only played 43 games in AAA. Roman was great last year including his defense.

WC40 Abreu Wong Yoshida? Rafaela - except for the defense downgrade Monasterio Some of the other guys have shown some signs, but it'll take time to get their stats back.

They should be doing defensive drills all the time. Is there a problem with that? Duran needed extra OF work one offseason after being promoted.

Jarren Duran isn't going to heat up by sitting on the bench. If they just want to plug him at LF fulltime and sit Masa down most of the time, fine. They you have Durbin, Story and Mayer in the IF. I would move Story off of SS immediately as his defense is really bad. Story is either the 2b or competing for DH time. Durbin is the same hitter as last year and his defense has been good. Mayer is going to be a part of this ballclub for the next few years so you need to stick with him for a while. The question is do you want Story or Masa in the lineup?

You don't have to blame him for their performance, but you can blame him for not wanting to further their development and seeing it more as "babysitting" than coaching. The job is to coach these players, not just set the lineups and make pitching changes.

They moved Raffy quickly. They moved Beni quickly. They moved Mookie quickly. They moved Bogey quickly. The best players don't hang around MiLB for a long time.

I think if Chad Tracy doesn't feel like Story's leadership skills are up to par, they should just DFA. This is a team that needs to move forward and Story isn't a part of the future. He won't be standing on the stage the next time they are holding a trophy.

I think Whitlock's comments were fine TBH. In print, you can read into them a little. If you watch them, they are fine. I think media painted his comments in a negative light and tried to combine them with Story's comments.

An even worse way to do it.

If they got rid of the CBO, they wouldn't find anyone serious to fill these positions. They have to stick with Brez for a while now.

KC had an UGLY swing that could be exploited at a higher level. Arias is young and inexperienced. I wouldn't necessarily compare the two. If he's still hitting 1000 in June and gets sent to AAA, let's see what it looks like there for a bit. At least we know Arias can play defense.

He's not getting called up in April. He's not getting called up in May. He's not getting called up in June. Just ignore his numbers for a few months and see what happens after they call him up to AAA.

Story's play combined with his comments deserve a benching. As a veteran in that clubhouse, he needs to lead the younger players and keep that stuff private. Last year, all we heard was "we're moving on" after Devers was traded. Story clearly didn't get that memo this time around. There is nothing about the Trevor Story experience that has impressed me since he's been here.