BOSTON — Sam Kennedy, Craig Breslow and Alex Cora said all the things they’re supposed to say Monday.
We didn’t reach our goal. We need to be better. We fell short. Talk is cheap. It’s on us. We’re ready to deliver.
But there’s also seems to be an underlying feeling within the Red Sox that an 81-81 season in which they finished third in the American League East, ninth out of 15 AL clubs, missed a division title by 13 games and a playoff berth by five wasn’t that bad. Lots of players took big step forwards, you see. It wasn’t an unmitigated disaster like people thought it might be. Down the stretch, Cora even credited his club for exceeding expectations by defying the naysayers and still being alive in the last week of the season. Cue the duck boats, then.
One can acknowledge that the Red Sox did make tangible, organizational progress this year by identifying plenty of key contributors who will help in the future and, at times, playing an exciting, athletic brand of baseball that captivated the fan base. There were bright spots, sure. But this is Boston and a season in which the Red Sox are never in the mix for the division title should always be considered something of a disaster. Such seasons are unacceptable in places like New York (”We were all embarrassed,” said Hal Steinbrenner after an 82-80 campaign in 2023) and even St. Louis (”It’s clear we need to make significant changes, said Bill DeWitt Jr. on Monday after an 83-79 record). But they’re commonplace in Boston, where the Red Sox have become the Mid Sox and mediocrity is a rite of summer.
The goal posts seem to have moved, even if Kennedy bristled when asked if that was the case Monday afternoon before reiterating that “playing baseball in October” is what defines a successful season in Boston. Even Cora, while disagreeing with the premise, acknowledged earlier this month that standards, in the eyes of many, have been lowered for an organization that has now missed the postseason in five of six seasons and made no real effort to aggressively pursue upgrades last winter.
“As a whole, if you look at our season, it might be a good one in the eyes of a lot of people,” Cora said a couple weeks ago in New York, “but we felt — we feel — like we can play in October and be good.”
Cora’s sentiment, which acknowledges the apathetic elephant in the room, is actually correct. People do look at the 2024 season as a good one because Jarren Duran, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Wilyer Abreu and others took steps forward and the team was in contention for a large portion of the season. Fine, but that’s ridiculous. The appreciation of mediocrity goes just to show how far the Red Sox have fallen from their yearly appearances in the postseason for the better part of two decades.
In places like Detroit and Kansas City, where disappointment has become the norm over the span of decades, there are likely moral victories to be had. But the John Henry Red Sox aren’t supposed to play that game, even for a single season. Think about how much outrage the term “bridge year” got back in 2009. That the Red Sox have aimed to be average for the course of a few seasons is insulting to a fan base that deserves more. And even Kennedy, who along with Henry and Tom Werner signed off on only marginal upgrades to a marginally good roster last winter, said Monday that the ownership group didn’t do enough.
“No. We’re not there. That’s on us,” Kennedy said, “You can phrase it any way you want, but when you fall short of your expectations, you can always do more. We feel that obligation and that responsibility each and every year.”
We’re about to find out if that’s truly the case. The Red Sox have the means to make big-time moves this winter. The question is whether they’re motivated to make them. There’s a real case to be made they’re better positioned to go full throttle this winter than they were a year ago and the needs — a front-line starter, a big right-handed bat and some bullpen help — largely remain the same. As Kennedy said Monday, talk is cheap. Recent history suggests the team is, too. Cora signed an extension in part because he was paid handsomely to stay in a familiar place, but also because, in his words, there was a “promise of winning.”
After the last few years, there better be. Because otherwise, as expectations continue to fall, so will the interest level.
“I truly believe this is the last struggle, to be honest with you,” said an optimistic Cora. “I think this is it. There were some positives, there was a lot of negatives. But I think where we going as an organization, it’s gonna be fun again. It’s gonna be fun again. And it starts this offseason. We’re gonna work so hard. We’re gonna work very hard together to shoot for it.
“It’s the division. We’re not talking about playoffs. The Wild Card, yeah, it’s great. Yeah, it’s part of the tournament. But no, we’re shooting for the for the division. I think we’re gonna be capable, starting next year.”
