The thing is, though, they basically swapped Lester for Porcello, who they're paying 95 million for 5 years.
If they could have signed Lester for Homer Bailey+ money of 6 years, 110 to 120 million, they didn't save very much money at all.
So their bungling led to the departure of 2 pitchers who put up a combined fWAR of 8.6 in 2015.
That only leaves the question of how much of the blame for the bungling belongs to Ben, which we'll never know.
1. We don't really know what Henry was thinking last offseason. He did ultimately offer Lester 6 years and 135 million. Whether that was just for PR reasons, who knows?
2. They put themselves in the position of having such a mediocre staff by cutting loose 2 #2 starters in Lester and Lackey, and not replacing them with anything comparable. Then they compounded the risk by putting together a bad bullpen.
I don't know exactly how much of the 2015 pitching staff can be put on ownership and how much on Ben. We'll never know all the behind the scenes machinations. I tend to think a lot of it was on Ben.
You raise some interesting points in the rest of your post.
But he obviously didn't have that luxury, as far as JH was concerned.
The 2015 opening day staff felt like it was Buchholz, Koji, Tazawa, and a bunch of names picked from a hat.
I think the 2015 team was a combination of bad decisions and bad breaks. I think a bad job was done putting together the 2015 pitching staff. There was really no reason for a team with the Sox resources to go into the season with a staff that questionable. That will always be my main beef with the job done by Ben.