Boston Red Sox: David Price should take a page out of Chris Sale’s book

Boston Red Sox pitcher has not made any friends in the media here, and he’ll soon start losing fan support if he can’t turn things around.

Another day, another incident with the media for Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price. What else is new.

Since his return to the majors this season, Price has been attacking the media while also being attacked himself. The relationship was never rosy, but now it has certainly soured. The latest incident pits Price against current NESN color analyst and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Dennis Eckersley.

The incident reportedly took place on the team plane as the Red Sox took a flight to Toronto for this series with the Bluejays. Of course, no one knows exactly what was said, but the root of the issue seems to stem from comments that Eckersley made on the Red Sox postgame show following Price’s last start. It’s believed that it has something to do with when Price failed to cover first base on ground ball.

No matter what brought on the issue, David Price needs to settle down and just play baseball. He reportedly said something along the lines of “some people just don’t understand how hard this game is,” but how could he? Eck is a Hall of Fame pitcher that also played in Boston.

Manager John Farrell and Dave Dombrowski did meet with Price following the incident and said it would be handled internally.

Past Media Issues

On June 7th in New York, Price’s media outbursts began for the season. He snapped at CSNNE‘s Evan Drellich, while he also had some choice words for the Boston Herald‘s Steve Buckley and MLB.com‘s Ian Browne. The incident stemmed from a series of tweets that Drellich had sent out during the game that night, including one about how Price has chosen to not speak to the media every day.

Drellich then provided some details about his altercation with Price following the game.

"“After the game, Price wasn’t happy. He was directly unhappy with me,” Drellich explained on Boston Sports Tonight. “We had a conversation about it. I prefer not to detail it because I think the conversation was meant to be mostly private. But it was loud enough that most of the reporters overheard it and it will probably be talked about to some extent. My takeaway is that, from both the story and from the conversation I had with him, is he’s unhappy with how he’s been treated in Boston. The bottom line doesn’t change.”"

Steve Buckley detailed the incident in his Boston Herald column as well.

"Price reportedly told Buckley directly, “Write whatever the [expletive] you want. Just write it. Whatever the [expletive] you want.” Price was also overheard saying, presumably about the media, “[Expletive] them! [Expletive] them all. All of them.”"

Clearly, David Price cannot handle the media being any bit critical of him or his performances on the mound.

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Be Like Sale

Just be like Chris Sale, David Price.

It’s simple. If you pitch well in Boston, things will be easier for you here. The issue is that David Price has struggled since signing in Boston two offseasons ago. In a Red Sox uniform Price has a 4.08 ERA, which is almost a full run higher than his career average before Boston.

Chris Sale simply goes out there, pitches lights out innings, doesn’t blow up at the media or fans, and moves on. That’s all it takes to last in Boston.

As things stand, Price is pushing himself out of Boston. My guess is he’ll eventually land somewhere new and return to form, claiming that there is a “toxic environment” in Boston, but that’s not the truth. Price simply can’t cut it in a big market with media and fans that are critical of your poor performance on the mound.

By no means am I saying that Price has been a horrible pitcher, but he’s definitely not the $200 million we had all hoped for. He’s yet to reach our expectations, and he will need to turn things around quickly or he’s going to lose the little fan support that he still has.

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David Price, I beg this of you. Please, go out to the mound, pitch a phenomenal game of baseball, be cordial with the media and fans, and go to sleep. I don’t care if you won’t speak to the media on non-pitching days, there’s no need, but please stop blowing up. All you’re doing now is causing distractions.