Boston Red Sox in danger of flopping again in 2023
The Boston Red Sox beginning to the 2023 offseason has been a huge dud thus far and threatens to wreck the 2023 season before it’s even begun. This space is emphatic in the belief that teams, especially championship-contending teams are built in the offseason.
Unlike the NFL where the annual draft can be a clear contributor (except much of the time in Foxborough), great baseball teams are primarily built through free-agency signings and trades.
To illustrate this fact, let’s take look at the Boston Red Sox last three offseasons (2022 is only partially completed of course) to see how they have fared. This evaluation isn’t rocket science but it proves the point that what you do in the winter makes all the difference come spring, summer, and fall.
The Boston Red Sox have largely flopped since firing Dave Dombrowski
The Boston Red Sox’s absentee ownership, resting on previous solid laurels made a sea change in 2019 by firing the wildly successful President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski after one down season. (Note: That is the same Dombro who took the Philadelphia Phillies to the World Series in 2022.)
This obtuse action followed three terrific seasons in which Dombro’s Red Sox team won an unprecedented three-straight American League East titles culminating in a World Series win in 2018.
Instead of giving Dombrowski a well-deserved extension, the languid ownership kicked him to the curb like an empty soda can on a sidewalk. The shallow and bogus excuse was he emptied the farm system.
The reality was they were looking to fatten their already overflowing coffers by tightening the purse strings they had opened for Dombro. He had used the funds adroitly and done what he was supposed to do, win big and win a World Series.
The Boston Red Sox are a Major League laughingstock
Dombrowski’s replacement proceeded to dump Mookie Betts, one of the top three or four players in baseball for basically nothing and shipped David Price’s salary out. The official reason was to build the farm system and be more “sustainable”, which translates to making more cash.
The first year under the new Chief Baseball Officer (can’t they come up with a better title than that?) Chaim Bloom was a flop as they drifted to the bottom of the AL East. Bloom bounced back nicely in 2021.
Bloom made several great acquisitions in the 2021 offseason. The team surprisingly earned a Wild Card spot and went to the ALCS before losing to Houston. Things were looking up. But in 2022 Bloom undid two of his best moves of 2021 and went backward.
He traded Hunter Renfroe for Jackie Bradley Jr. and didn’t re-sign Kyle Schwarber. Keeping both were a no-brainer for anyone paying attention in Red Sox Nation. Instead of adding to a good team, Bloom undid two of his best moves of 2021. To make matters worse, he signed a sore-armed pitcher, James Paxton who never threw a pitch.
The results were predictable. The team stunk and dropped back into last place in the AL East. Now for the current offseason thus far.
The 2022 Boston Red Sox offseason has begun with a thud
This offseason, things are trending along a similar track to last. While not necessarily agreed by all, much of Red Sox Nation has been critical of Bloom for not re-signing Xander Bogaerts. While this could bring opportunity, that would only be the case if they utilized the funds to make an unlikely even bigger splash.
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Adding to the misery is that they could also lose their best player, Rafael Devers next offseason to free agency. If they can’t re-sign him now, Devers should be traded for top major league talent, not prospects whom they can’t select correctly and most of whom fail anyway.
They did sign two decent relievers and a player from Japan Masataka Yoshida. He could be a nice addition and at $105M he’d better be. But he should have been a complementary player to players like Schwarber, Devers, Renfroe, etc., not expected to carry the team.
There is still time for Bloom to dig out from the morass he has created. Rumors say Carlos Correa may be on the Sox radar. Don’t count on it. But a few moves of that magnitude would indicate the team is back in the big leagues, metaphorically speaking, and will spend to compete.
Next. Red Sox ownership receiving a firestorm of criticism (and its deserved). dark
Until and unless that occurs, expect the worst and another last-place finish, or maybe they can leapfrog the Baltimore Orioles. We’ll see.
The clock is ticking on the 2022 offseason and absent some blockbuster trades, free agency signings, or the sale of the team to a deep pockets owner, this Red Sox team will find itself firmly ensconced in last place again.