Dan Shaughnessy piece in today's Globe

[markj]

Opening lines.

How do we fix the Red Sox for 2023?

Here’s a thought for starters … how about ownership opens up its wallet and spends some money?

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/08/23/sports/some-suggestions-how-fix-broken-red-sox-2023/

[MongoLikeSox]

It's behind a pay wall. Should be good, though. He's usually brutal in the scathing comments department. He's also on our side.  thumb_u

[longgame]

Tried to get at it a couple of ways and got through:

How do we fix the Red Sox for 2023?

Here’s a thought for starters … how about ownership opens up its wallet and spends some money?

Only let’s do it wisely this time.

The last-place Red Sox, who proudly remind you they won four World Series in this century, have become a bottom-line-based operation. True, they still have a ridiculously high payroll, but that’s from mistakes going back to 2019 when Dave Dombrowski was giving out multimillion-dollar contracts (hello, Chris Sale) like M&Ms. The Sox are still paying David Price, for gosh sakes.

Since Dombro was fired and gave way to Chaim Bloom, the Sox have been dumpster divers â€" ever in search of a deal, always trying to turn another team’s trash into treasure. They’ve had a few hits with Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock, Christian Arroyo (when he’s healthy), and John Schreiber, but mostly it’s been misses.

The cost-conscious talent evaluators simply haven’t gotten the job done. How else to explain Alex Verdugo, Connor Wong, and Jeter Downs for Mookie Betts? Franchy Cordero and Josh Winckowski for Andrew Benintendi? JBJ for Hunter Renfroe? James Paxton for $6 million? Houston’s 28th- and 29th-best prospects for Christian Vázquez?

The result of all this bad evaluation is likely to be Boston’s fifth last-place finish in 11 seasons. Sorry, but no amount of David Ortiz celebrations can disguise the fact that Sox ownership has rendered the baseball season meaningless in 45 percent of all summers since 2012. Tom Yawkey and Haywood Sullivan/Buddy LeRoux never put Sox fans through anything like that.

So here’s a solution: Act like the big-market team that you are. Pretend that the Red Sox are as important as Liverpool. Bring back Dan Duquette, Dombrowski, and Larry Lucchino if you have to, but please compete with the Yankees, Mets, and Dodgers in this winter’s free agent market.

Message to John Henry, Tom Werner, Michael Gordon, Sam Kennedy: Hold on to your loyal, talented, decorated homegrown ballplayers. Do what you would not do with Betts. Pay market value for your stars. That means apologizing to Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers, and locking up both for the long term.

Sure, those deals might look bad in six, eight, or 10 years. Who cares? You have the money to Make The Red Sox Great Again. Go buy the next Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, or Keith Foulke.

Yankee superstar and certain 2022 American League MVP Aaron Judge is going to be a free agent. He’s going to get something in the vicinity of nine years and $300 million. The Red Sox should join the winter bidding. Bring Judge to the Union Oyster House for a big fish dinner. Tell Judge you will match whatever the Yankees are willing to pay.

If Judge agrees, it’s the all-time throwdown win for the Sox over the Yankees. If the Yankees sign Judge, the Sox will know they jacked up the price for New York.

Andrew Benintendi might be worth another look to help shore up the outfield.

The Sox have to fix their catching situation. All-Star Willson Contreras is going to be on the market. He is 30. Sign him.

Eric Hosmer is an established winner at first base, and the Padres are paying almost all of his salary. He gives you a solid first baseman until Triston Casas is ready. Elsewhere, the infield is set with Trevor Story at second, Bogaerts at short, and Devers at third.

In the event Bogaerts leaves, Arroyo plays second and Story moves over to short. If things fall apart, don’t be afraid to rush Marcelo Mayer to the big leagues. Robin Yount played short for the Brewers every day when he was 18. Mayer is going to be a star.

In the outfield, Average Al Verdugo goes back to left and the Sox need to find more help in right and center. If they can’t get Judge (we know they won’t), Benintendi and Michael Brantley are going to be free agents. Both are good fits here. Rob Refsnyder comes cheap and is a better solution than Jarren “No Mas” Duran.

The rotation has three pitchers under contract: Pivetta, upstart Kutter Crawford, and the brittle Sale. The Sox should make a qualifying offer to keep Michael Wacha, but forget about Paxton. Giants lefty Carlos Rodón would cost a fortune, but he’s the best free agent available.  Giants lefty Carlos Rodon took a record of 11-6 into Tuesday's start.

Beyond that, the Sox have to hope Dollar Store Bloom finds another Wacha on a one-year deal. Meanwhile, Rich Hill is always available. Ditto for the dominant Whitlock if the Sox decide to make him a starter.

As for the bullpen, Tanner Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber, and Matt Barnes are under team control. So is Ryan Brasier, who should never see a high-leverage situation. I’d try to sign Kenley Jansen and hope Chaim finds a bargain lefty.

There you go. Solutions. All of which can be solved by cold hard cash.


This Boston baseball ownership group purchased the club for $660 million in 2002. In March, Forbes reported the Red Sox current value at $3.9 billion.

You have the cash, Red Sox. Stop using Fenway Park as an ATM and start sinking some of the profits back into the team … like in the old days when you went out and got the best guys available on the market.

Go get Judge, Rodón, Contreras, and Jansen … put the Red Sox back in the World Series … then sprinkle some of the leftover FSG profits on the Globe sports department.

We’d call that a win-win situation.

[markj]

It's behind a pay wall. Should be good, though. He's usually brutal in the scathing comments department. He's also on our side.  thumb_u

You can right-click on the link and do Save As and just download the article. You don't get the pics, but the text will be there.

[longgame]

Pretty good article.  Hard to disagree with it.

[MongoLikeSox]

It's behind a pay wall. Should be good, though. He's usually brutal in the scathing comments department. He's also on our side.  thumb_u

You can right-click on the link and do Save As and just download the article. You don't get the pics, but the text will be there.

Thanks, Mark!

[MongoLikeSox]

Thanks for posting the article, longgame.

The "only let's do it wisely this time" seems to escape this organization periodically. Some of them were bewildering the moment they were announced. Some of the non-signings hurt worse. Not re-upping Beltre? But...... but....

[elktonnick]

I think Dan Shaughnessy just joined the Fire Bloom club.

[longgame]

They don't seem to understand that people can take a down year if they at least put a decent product out on the field and you get hit with injuries.  But even in those cases you shouldn't be a basement dweller ever.  They start with a weak team and then got weaker from injuries.  But I think the real mess all goes back getting rid of the outfield from 2018.  All that year every Red Sox fan thought "It's going to be fun watching these guys for years to come" and like that they were gone.  Since then the Sox are 260-247 but they were plus 22 last year so all the plus side and then some comes from last year.  Their average finish is 3.75, so basically a fourth place team.  3rd, 5th, 2nd, 5th since 2018.  There's just nothing there to indicate they are moving in the right direction.  They don't have a good core, they can't stay on the field, they have bad approaches to pretty much every aspect of the game, they have no depth and no resiliency.  It's almost like you have to work at it to make it this bad. 

The big question is who has the ability to see this and the juice to do something about it.  The only person I can think of is Sam Kennedy, so it's on him now.  The rest of management is lost to me. 

[SeaBeachFred]

I think Dan Shaughnessy just joined the Fire Bloom club.

I liked the article and maybe Shaunessy has guts after all, but I don't want to hear anything about bringing Lucchino back.  He started our downfall in 2014 when he low-balled Lester and led to two last place finishes in a row until Dombo came in and restored order for a while.  Sign Devers but let clutch miserable Bogaerts go so we do NOT block Mayer when he is ready.  We hope to have a healthy Story back to play short and we must do all we can to keep Arroyo healthy because he can play even if Cora has taken almost two seasons to see it.  All in all, though, it was a good article but he left out one important point.......HE DID NOT SAY FIRE BLOOM AND THAT MUST BE DONE OR NONE OF THE AFOREMENTIONED IS POSSIBLE.  And Cora has to go too, the filthy rotten cheater.  We can't have any rotten apples running the program.

[elktonnick]

Reading between the lines, Shaughnessey made it clear that Bloom was not part of the future.  He called for others by name to take the helm.  While he did mention Lucchino, Larry is 76 he would never want the job.

[longgame]

Agreed Elk.  Plus I don't think he's literally calling for Luchino, but remember that this team got turned around when he was in charge and started their winning ways.  He hired Theo and Francona I'm pretty sure.  He was a big part of getting Schilling.  Guy was an a-hole but knew what he was doing.  I imagine most of these guys are a-holes.