The MLB Playoffs Have EXPOSED Red Sox Owners!!

22 comments

1. Senility is the reason. How old is this guy?

2. The "Moneyball" method has only worked well during the regular season. I believe it's because it creates roster depth to keep a team consistent in the long run. This system has failed in the post season. Teams who have a 4th and a 5th starter become weapons in the bullpen. Starters don't pitch deep into games in the playoffs like you expect in the regular season. Then the guys you pay a lot to be in that line up tend to get the hits that count, usually a game changing home run. Playoffs have a different game plan approach, so I agree with you, you pay the extra to get the results when it matters.

3. Hmm that comment by John Henry was ignorant when he made it and more ignorant now!! Theres no knowledgeable fans who think you can win a title every year! But damn it they can at least be competitive for more than half a year and that's on ownership. Players are expensive "no kidding") If you can't stand the heat get out of the damn kitchen. Great job pulling that back up Corbin it's amazing they raise ticket prices on fans who are lucky enough to be able to afford a ticket and then make that kind of statement because fans expect a better return on their investment.!! Hope we see better this off season and it leads to a competitive enjoyable season

4. Pretty crazy MLB TEAM PAYROLL factoid
   teams #1-#6 in mlb payroll all made the playoffs
   #15 made the playoffs
   #20 #21#22#23 and #26 made the playoffs
   You don’t think this fact influences the Red Sox ….i posted this factoid in the last livestream….. so is it about making the playoffs or winning championships? 2004-2007 -2013-2018 all years in the top three in MLB payroll …

5. You’re right on Corbin, I think John Henry still feels the sting of Chris Sale and maybe Story & Yoshida? But it’s high time he goes out this winter and brings in a Max Fried and another star.

6. I agree, all true Corbin. It's not sports, it's business. Youth movement/trades from same are keys. Significant FA very unlikely.

7. I too was annoyed at Henry’s commentary.

   His view that Red Sox fans are not realistic in their expectations, demanding a championship every year is absurd. I’ve never heard a Red Sox fan say that. What we want is a good competitive product where we are playing meaningful baseball to the end of the season, and where missing the playoffs is the exception and not the rule. A market like Boston should be able to do that.

   He holds up Arizona 2023 as the poster child of a team that did not spend but made it to the World Series. He conveniently ignores the fact that Arizona was the exception and not the rule. Look at the Red Sox championship years… they were always at or near the top in payroll.

   The third wildcard should be eliminated. It gives clubs the mentality that all they have to do is snag that third spot and then hope they get hot for a playoff run. It leads to mediocrity.

8. They've told us that sustainability and affordability is their mantra. When are we a fans going to accept this? John Henry has taken profits, putting cash into the minor leagues while not spending at the major league level. It will be interesting to see what profit Forbes suggests the Red Sox made in 24.

9. First off, the Money hoodie is a cold dig and I love it.
   Secondly, I agree that the Sox put themselves in a corner and that this particular off season makes it look even worse… Even more so when you figure that if the Dodgers didn't defer Ohtani's contract there would be the top three payrolls left in the playoffs.
   Now, hear me out on this before you react… He wasn't wrong given the information they were looking at at that time (not this last off season but the last 5+ years) The league had multiple teams each year making it to the playoffs with small payrolls (Rays, D-Backs, etc.) and that trend held all the way up to this year. I think the problem lies in the fact that that is an extreme outlier compared to the entire modern history (modern in this sense being since about the 50's til now where players pay started skyrocketing) I think Henry and FSG by extension looked at that and the moneyball era and said why are we spending so much we could be making more profit by doing it differently. They thought they could build a winning process where spending wasn't a necessity and they were almost right. The problem is when it was proven they were wrong and there was a minimum level of investment needed they were/are too slow to react. This should have changed after 2022 when we saw a poor 2022 after a lucky 2021 and a terrible 2019. They stayed the course at that time and it's bit them hard the last three years. They fended that off by the "waiting for the young core" type comments but that core has achieved and that has also bit them. At this point they have to spend a little (at least) in 2025 and probably a lot in 2026 in order to fix their relationship with the fans and this downturn in performance. This means where they could have been making moderate payouts and getting a competitive playoff caliber team the last two years they are now faced with having to spend a lot more over the next 2+ years to get back on track with less certainty that they can be that team.
   So, I don't think they were entirely wrong given what they were looking at I do think they were wrong with not being able to see the forest through the trees or the signal through the noise (whichever you prefer.)

10. Henry's comments were deeply disingenuous. Yes, look at the Dodgers. So, the Dodgers are–by some great stroke of luck, apparently–beating something like 1 in 15 odds year after year, right? And who says the Dodgers have been unlucky?

    And no one thinks the Sox entered the last three seasons with 1-in-30 odds. They felt we had next to NO chance. Their only "chance" was that they MIGHT have made the playoffs, and then it's a crapshoot. Where did they rank in terms of actual, y'know, VEGAS odds? Did John Henry REALLY get kicked out of casinos in Vegas for counting cards? He seems to have reinvented (or forgotten) "odds" now as well.

    Henry isn't going to change. I can't for the life of me understand why Craig Breslow said anything (Sam put him in a headlock in the bathroom). To Craig: Dude, you don't control the purse strings. Does anyone think JH has changed his mind? I've seen NO indication. It's simple: baseball doesn't terribly INTEREST him anymore.

    One thing to add to what you said Corbin: yes, there are teams that spend less, yet remain competitive. However, I can only think of TWO that do so fairly regularly: Tampa and Cleveland (maybe Milwaukee, but they play in the JayVee Central of the JV NL). Even Cleveland has the comfort of playing in a division that only this past year finally didn't suck. Tampa is the outlier, and even they have finally been coming down to earth (and enjoy it while you can Baltimore–those young players will start hitting arbitration and salary negotiations ANY minute now…). MONEY isn't all that's required to win, but 1) it sure increases the odds and 2) it's (almost) impossible to be CONSISTENTLY competitive without smarts + money.

    Corbin, Corbin, Corbin… MAKING money? My dear boy: You don't live in the World of Financial Wizardry and Brilliance occupied by JH, ensconced behind his Keyboard of Transparency, Brilliance & Bravery. All that "money from winning" is not a certainty. Probably not forecastable or leveragable when yur buyin' golf partnerships, merging intergalactic confederations or looking to purchase the first-ever pickleball team on Mars. For those excitin' things that we stupid sports mortals can only imagine, you need to KEEP THE SAILS TRIMMED 24/7/365!! Cuz you never know when the next "visionary opportunity to reshape the world of sports ventures" will occur!

    WE'RE JUST AN ASSET NOW.

11. I don't understand why anyone would want to own a sports club and not be going blls to the wall to win every single season. As a business surely the priority is to make money which should come with success on the field. As a Liverpool supporter I've also felt there are times FSG are content to have a few seasons in the wilderness if it means they don't have to spend too much money. They have invested money into upgrading our stadium and they have broken a few transfer records for players in the past, but recently fans are concerned the funds are running out. Last October we had a minority investor pump up to $200m into the club but once that money is gone, it's gone. FSG could have instead sold up for a massive profit but refused!

12. We are fucked

13. So right now, you can throw every quote from anyone in the front office out the window on how this is the year they finally spend and go for it. Even Cora's response can be ignored. Until FSG decides to open the purse strings up again, they are going to be cheap and do the bear minimum to improve the club outside the organization. Henry and the rest seem to be in the how do we get back all the money we are down from the last 20 years and that is to stop spending, and until people stop going to games and they really see any kind of impact that hits them hard in the wallet, they won't care about the fan base or where the Sox end up. The Sox attendance didn't fall off all that much and they will use the carrot of look at all the shinny new player prospects about to join the club, feel the excitement, until they realize there are no real pitchers among those. Hoping this might be a time they finally go against what has happened over the last 3 years, but no voice of Henry saying we will spend and change our ways now that the kids have arrived means it probably will not happen this year.

14. I look at the Diamondbacks last year, going to the World Series….spending equals spending. When was the last time the Yankees and Mets won a championship? 2009 for the Yankees, 1986 for the Mets. I agree the Red Sox can and should invest in our team, but it doesn't guarantee a championship….

15. Okay yes we might not win it every year, but it would be nice to at least be in the running for one!

16. I get the impression that ownership believes we are ‘lucky’ to get a long regular season to watch the Red Sox, that the playoffs are brief and hopefully fans don’t notice the Red Sox absence with the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics playing. That they don’t have to try hard to field a championship caliber team if people switch their attention to another sport. I hope not!

17. I'm quite sure John Henry is constantly reminding himself how wise he was not caving into the ongoing demands and rants to sign Jordan Montgomery during this past off season … Getting burned again with free agency by Lucas Giolitto quickly going down for the entire season was bad enough and is another financial "red flag" setback that he no longer will tolerate or ever want to continue coming close to repeating … "Red Sox Nation" prepare and brace yourself for this upcoming off season when Craig Breslow's strictly follows John Henry's "marching orders" by primarily concentrating on acquiring young arms under the age of 25 …

18. henry was gaslighting. thinks he's smarter than the fans who helped him buy his 12th yacht.

19. Good stuff Corbin !
    For all those reasons i was afraid AJ Hinch and the Tigers would beat the Guardians (not that they are big spenders themselves) so they could become the poster child for the el cheapo owners out there.
    I am more than happy to see the big payrolls being in the playoffs.
    No place to hide.
    See you tonight

20. I think we've known for a while that ownership is the biggest roadblock to building a really competitive team hopefully this off season things will change but like most of us I'm skeptical. As always we'll see!

21. You're hitting us with all the relevant points, and none of the silly ones that we hear too much of. Good stuff, again. Thanks!

22. My take on John Henry becoming miserly – after being a big spender for over 15 years – is that I think he got frustrated vastly outspending the Rays year after year only to be fighting it out with the Rays year after year. I think he believed he could spend less and still compete a la the Rays. But that hasn’t happened. AND I do think he’s lost interest in the Red Sox. He won 4 World Series titles and moved on to new goals to achieve. Maybe seeing the Dodgers and both New York teams doing well will light a fire. And I do think Breslow has enough baseball clout to make an impression on John Henry.