Red Sox Showing Interest In Willson Contreras

There isn’t much the Red Sox can say anymore to pacify fans. That time is passed.

This will come off as a rant, but it is honestly just observations of the past few years. I would say most people will agree this is more objective than subjective. We are all seeing the same thing, some people may just want to interpret things differently. If any disagree, I would love for them to point out to me how you feel the past few years rosters and decisions behind creating them were geared towards winning the division, a ring, let alone making a playoff appearance. Mostly, I was bored so I wrote way more than I would normally or wanted to.

It’s been a few years since management has meant what they say and do what they said they were going to do to fix blatant problems on flawed rosters. Some issues with the current team inexplicably go back for many years.

Between full throttle, the black hole at second base for 9 years, not having an elite lefty setup man since 2013, and recognizing they lack power, promising to add that power for years, and not providing those clear-cut elite power hitters they know they need.

This year’s offseason had us believing we were adding a clear-cut elite number two and much needed power. We shall see, there is time.

Would anyone be surprised based on past team statements if this doesn’t come to pass, but more importantly, it was never meant to happen?

When trust has degraded to the current state it is not a good place to be for the fans. The amount of momentum and goodwill this ownership fostered over years is gone. Not because they are failing to deliver rings every few years or because they look inept now and dysfunctional as an organization. We were used to losing for a very long time after all It is because they lied……..too much, on purpose while looking inept and dysfunctional.

We added a solid but aging number 3 on a short-term contract while the lineup, even if we add Bregman back, is still the same lineup that was thin and lacked thump while having him in it.

I don’t want to hear it from anyone in the organization anymore trying to build hype where none exists. I would rather they STFU then gas light. It is crystal clear they haven’t tried in half a decade to be a contender. That isn’t opinion. That is watching what they do (especially not do) to address clear needs or react to their rivals.

You don’t have to worry about it when you aren’t a contender. Teams that think they are contenders strike aggressively and look for upgrades wherever they can to take advantage of their ability to contend. It is why the Yankees are always a threat, every year, without fail, regardless of the end result. Their fans know management is building that team to make the playoffs every year. They may not, but the chances of them not making a playoff is extremely lower than them making it. It is a shock when they do not make it. No one thinks the Red Sox are operating that way anymore. It is clear to everyone, because they aren’t.

The difference between the pre-Henry years and post Henry years is night and day, and with that original hunger came expectations. The old pre-Henry Sox couldn’t be counted on to build a solid rotation, roster, keep it, or go that extra mile to get what was needed to win it all and repeat that desire. When Henry came in, he was hungry, they all were. In short order they showed fans that a management eager to win could do so by plugging holes where weaknesses were with high end talent. They built solid rotations, bullpens, and lineups capable of hurting you nearly anywhere in the order. It didn’t mean they were a lock to win a ring, but it meant every year they were a serious threat to make the playoffs and potentially have a shot at a ring if they did. Sound familiar?

No one believes that this management has been trying to win a championship for years. Certainly, no one believes they have that same hunger and drive they used to have. Some major moves appear to reactions to fans and the press screaming at them rather than calculated moves to make sure they are better than their competition. The early Henry management team would have been plugging in that power, signing that second baseman, adding that number 2, getting that great lefty setup guy, and doing it all aggressively. Maybe not all at once, but you wouldn’t hear the same complaint two or three years in a row about the same obvious problems. NO WAY.

These last few years have been an exercise in lethargy. The amount of money we have spent on injured players, reclamation projects and journeyman utility players rather than spending for those one or two elite talents has had the payroll at or close to the cap anyway. The result is an inferior team with inferior talent with the same deficiencies year after year without solutions. Teams make mistakes, sign elite players that should be locks but aren’t, but this has been willful mismanagement. You have to come to that conclusion because the owner already saw what worked, won doing it (several times), and is watching his company(team) fail year after year, purposely not doing what works.

See problem, fix problem as quickly as able. Upgrade where able, as able. Simple, but that was basically the Red Sox M.O. that provided us with 1 more ring than most of us ever saw in our lives, and more playoff appearances then some past decades combined. That was a nice time, right?