An Apathetic Ownership Group and an Ego-Driven Analytics Nerd Just Killed Red Sox Baseball in Boston

Just when you think things were starting to get a bit positive for the Red Sox. Garrett Crochet at the top of the rotation is starting to get into the groove of a Cy Young Caliber season; you finally have all of the "big three" up in the majors, plus a surprise ascension of catcher Carlos Narvaez, and then BAM: they trade by far their most notable player and last link to the 2018 World Series winning squad, Rafael Devers, for a mediocre pitcher in Jordan Hicks, and three other players no one has ever heard off. All because the GM felt slighted by his best player, as his lack of a proper plan got exposed in real time.

Not even a full five years after the Mookie Betts trade, which, for all its faults, not just killing off the desire for a decent chunk of fans to never come back (check the year-by-year NESN ratings if you don't believe me), did have a legit bidding process, GM Craig Breslow decided to trade a DH on pace for a 30 HR, 90+ RBI campaign just 18 months into a 10 year deal, strictly out of spite, only speaking to one other team than his new team, the San Francisco Giants. All of this was preventable; none of this should have happened, and just hours after an objectively good sweep of the New York Yankees, any remaining goodwill this team had with the city of Boston has evaporated.

Around the Horn

In the coming days, you will 100% see FSG figurehead John Henry and matriarch Linda Pizzuti's state-run propaganda outlets, the Boston Globe, WEEI radio, and NESN blatantly smear Devers on the way out the same way they did Mookie Betts and then Terry Francona years before that. So let's go over how we got here in reality.

1) The Red Sox wanted to bring in a third baseman to help defensively with Devers not being that hot in the field, outright lying to Devers that they weren't in the market for a 3B. That in mind, they signed Alex Bregman (who Alex Cora wanted but Breslow didn't), and signaled to the national media that they EXPECTED HIM TO PLAY SECOND BASE (a lie), on a four-year deal that was worth more annually than what ex-franchise players Mookie Betts got from the Dodgers or Xander Bogaerts from the Padres. Understandably, he wasn't thrilled about being lied to regarding his spot in the field being secured, and although Bregman was great until he got hurt, that signing never made a ton of sense in my mind.

2) After Triston Casas' horrific knee injury, the Red Sox brass wanted Devers to move to first base (where he has never played as a major leaguer). As was his prerogative, he declined, stating this via translator a little over a month ago.

“I don’t think for me personally it’s the best decision after they asked me to play a different position and I only have two months of playing this position. To all of a sudden have me try to play another position ... from my end, it doesn’t seem like a good decision.

“I know I’m a ballplayer but at the same time they can’t expect me to play every single position out there. In spring training, they talked to me and basically told me to put away my glove — that I wasn’t going to play any other position but DH. So right now I just feel like it’s not an appropriate decision by them to ask me to play another position.”

“They told me that they didn’t want to allow me to play any other position. And now I think they [Breslow] should do their job essentially and hit the market and look for another player (to play first base). I’m not sure why they want me to be in between, the way they have me now.”

You can argue the "do what's best for the team slant," but you didn't hear much smoke for the GM who had zero plan behind Casas to begin the year and then opted to go with a pair of MLB the Show Create-A-Players you couldn't pick out of a lineup if your life depended on it, to slot in, in the form of Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez. I found that quite interesting.

3) The Trade itself. Devers for the following: Jodan Hicks, a once highly thought of relief arm who's now a mediocre depth starter. Kyle Hamilton, a younger arm with a career ERA+ of 88 (not good) across 35 career starts, will certainly regress under alleged pitching guru Andrew Bailey after he starts in Worcester. Outfield prospect (formerly No. 4 in the San Fran System) James Tibbs III, because the Red Sox are lacking on the outfield front. And lastly, Jose Bello, a 20-year-old pitching prospect, who will certainly be ruined before he ever hits a major league mound, given the Red Sox's track record of developing pitching is...yeah.

So keep all that information in mind once the hit pieces on Devers conveniently absolve Breslow of any fault and begin to drop en masse—some of which have already arrived!!! I personally can't wait for the completely fabricated story of what happened in that meeting with John Henry in Kansas City.

Reeking of Cowardice and Greed

The least shocking part of this is the immediate actions by the Red Sox brass over the last 24 hours. Conveniently making this deal as the team was quite literally about to be wheels up for a two-week west coast road trip, which makes the timing of this deal very interesting, in that it feels they hope the initial wave of anger dissipates before they come back (spoiler: it won't). Then there's the fact the first public comments by this team on the trade won't come until 28 hours after the trade was first reported, and on a private zoom call no less with Breslow and Team President/Human Punching Bag for Henry, Sam Kennedy, which'll be nothing more than a gaslighting session for everyone involved where they sell this as a big win.

Then there's the fun way to look at this. Fenway Sports Group just saved itself a ton of money on the books just weeks after picking up some German soccer player you've never heard of for a record transfer window move for the only team in their portfolio they care about, Liverpool. Now, could these two moves be completely unrelated? I lean that way, and don't think that's an unreasonable position to hold since this felt completely ego-driven by Breslow. That said, could you blame anyone for thinking so at this point?

Off-Ramp

I personally know people who've said they've never cared about the Sox as much as they used to since the Mookie Betts trade, and have seen plenty of other people say as much in the last five or so years. Alluded to this earlier, but the NESN ratings freefall since 2018 would uphold that belief. Nearly 65% of their audience from 2018 (a 7.26-year) left and never looked back, outside of a brief return during the fluke 2021 campaign, and just this past weekend at the park, two of those three Yankees games felt like New York heavy crowds, and there's been no shortage of heavily empty crowds these past few years either. Not only are the Red Sox not the biggest ticket item in town anymore, they've been a DISTANT No. 4 for a while, and I genuinely think that'll remain unchanged for a long time.

The point here is that if the Betts trade wasn't the stopping point for some (them striking out on all three of Shohei Ohtani, Juan Soto, Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a 12-month span was it for me), I imagine the Devers trade would be for a decent number of people. No one remains from the 2018 World Series team now, the face of your franchise is now Crochet, who hasn't even been here for six months yet, and the only other contender for that title is Jarren Duran, who self reported himself as a homophobe to the world on a live mic last summer, and strictly from a baseball sense, should probably be the next guy out with a logjam in the outfield as the closest guy to free agency.

Better yet, why should Red Sox fans get emotionally invested in the big-three when we will inevitably be here with them within the next six/seven years? Henry isn't going to pay these guys market value if/when they pan out, and he continues to bring in nerds like Chaim Bloom and Breslow who only view these players as numbers and made up advanced statistics on a spreadsheet, nothing more, who will absolutely view them, or anyone for that matter, as expendable at any point.

Yeah, we know, buddy.

Of course, nothing will change here or improve; ultimately, that's on Red Sox fans more than anything. You'll continue to monetarily support a team that actively loathes its fans, has pathologically lied to them for the past five years, and has smeared anyone on the way out for even longer with impunity. You'll show up to Fenway to watch a team that's primarily made up of nameless grey faces who don't put asses in seats, sing a terrible song about a now-dead President's 11-year-old daughter (at the time of writing) in the middle of the eighth, even if the Sox are getting destroyed by then. And you'll still show up for the ever-vapid "Fenway Expereince." Until that changes, this team will remain in the dead middle of purgatory until the end of time. Hit Henry where it hurts.

Also, if you want a more legitimate reason to avoid the Fenway area for the foreseeable future, you might soon have one. See you at the Zoom conference tonight.

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