Chowder and Champions
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Time for Boston Red Sox to spend like a big market powerhouse

By Michael DeVito

BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 29: Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, left, stands with Chairman Tom Werner, center, and President and CEO Larry Lucchino before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on August 29, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Winslow Townson/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - AUGUST 29: Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, left, stands with Chairman Tom Werner, center, and President and CEO Larry Lucchino before the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park on August 29, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Winslow Townson/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Red Sox flopped into last place in 2022 for the second time in three years. That’s not the type of “sustainability” that the team’s absentee ownership and its fans expected.

The team has an uphill climb awaiting it this offseason and if the preferred method is bottom-feeding at the free agent/trade troughs, they will be destined to fail once again.

Unlike his predecessor, Dave Dombrowski, Bloom has two last-place finishes in the American League East with one playoff/ALCS appearance sandwiched in between to his credit.

Conversely, Dombrowski, who was summarily dumped by the Sox owners less than one year after winning the big prize, the World Series in 2018, finished first in the AL East in three of his four years in charge. Go figure.

Boston Red Sox ownership has a lesson to learn

This pitiful scapegoating of the President of Baseball Operations, Dombro was a shameful action by the ownership and they have literally reaped what they have sown. That is last place finishes instead of Dombrowski’s almost annual first place results.

And it’s quite clear in the subsequent jettisoning of the team’s best player and former Al MVP Mookie Betts (for little in return, although salary relief in dumping David Price’s salary also factored big in the deal ) the reason seems to have been clear, the chase for the almighty Benjamins.

Dodgerblue.com liked the view,

"At the time of the trade, Betts was touted as the difference-maker for a Dodgers franchise that was seeking their first World Series since 1988. Manager Dave Roberts, Betts and other players attempted to downplay that pressure by maintaining it would take a team effort. While that held true, Betts said the expectations and pressure helped motivate him."

They did. Betts helped the Dodgers win the World Series that year. Cutting payroll and seeking to get under the luxury tax became the Red Sox’s overarching imperative. And it’s been a precipitous fall from the top to the bottom of the AL East since.

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