Not one to take snaps, Athletics outfielder Ken Rosenthal penned a column blasting the Boston Red Sox for their lackluster scheme and front office.
Ken Rosenthal isn’t alone in how he feels about Boston’s ownership group — John Henry & Co. has invested far more in other sports properties than they have in the Red Sox, the team that helped them make their fortune in the first place.
This offseason alone, Boston baseball franchises were embarrassed by their quest to keep Xander Bogaerts, and Zack Evelyn and Jose Abreu were outbid. While blaming Chaim Bloom is the easy way out, the ownership group that hired the former Tampa Bay Rays front office executive deserves plenty of that vitriol, too.
Do the Boston Red Sox deserve such heavy criticism?
Rosenthal column (Subscription required) in their entirety is worth a read, but the nastiest lines come near the end, when the old MLB reporter takes no prisoners in his commentary on the Boston offseason so far:
It was the ownership that hired Bloom to bring Ray-like efficiency to the Sox, the ownership that bears the most responsibility for the loss of the Betts, the property that failed to pass the $160 million Bogarts and is now on the clock with Devers, who is entering a walk year.
Back on September 1, she wrote, “For Sox ownership and major league baseball hitter Chaim Blum, the upcoming season looms as a turning point, if not a breaking point.” Office season is still turning. But try to convince anyone who follows this team that the Sox aren’t broke.”
The short answer is that most of the baseball community feels that way. This isn’t your dad’s Boston Red Sox. Heck, they’re not my Boston Red Sox. This franchise operates as a mid-market team.
Boston has middling payrolls and rosters that don’t have much hope of improvement after laying off so much of their best free agent talent. Losing a homegrown star like the Bogaerts makes matters worse, and provides little inspiration for Rafael Devers, whose contract is expected to be even larger than what the Padres gave his former teammate at shortstop.
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