The Boston Red Sox had a quiet offseason and will go into the 2024 Major League Baseball season with a lot of people low on the team.
Chairman Tom Werner promised the Red Sox would go “full throttle” before walking back the comments and missing out on free agents like Jordan Montgomery. With the Red Sox opening their season Wednesday, expectations don’t seem to be high among fans.
President and CEO Sam Kennedy knows this, but he still has confidence in what the team can accomplish.
“No hiding from the narrative, from the fact that it feels like there’s not a big level of expectation on the outside,” Kennedy told MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam on the latest “Fenway Rundown” podcast. “I will tell you — and it’s probably because his confidence and enthusiasm is so contagious from the inside — Alex Cora, Craig Breslow, the players feel like they’ve got something to prove. There’s a lot of optimism around the additions and the focus on athleticism and speed and defense and and building around this core of young guys.
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“So, I feel like this team, we feel like we have something to prove. And that’s a good spot to be in. There’s always optimism this time of year,” he continued. “But there’s a really a heightened sense of it,” he added. “I spent more time than I ever have before around the team this year in spring training.”
Kennedy added that if the Red Sox can stay healthy, then they expect to be competitive for the season and be in the postseason picture. But he did acknowledge that, because of two last-place finishes in 2022 and 2023, that they “need to earn our fans trust and support this year.”
“We need to do that each and every year. But you can really feel this team, this core emerging, we did the extension with (Brayan) Bello at the top of the rotation. And we’ve got reliable Nick Pivetta and Kutter Crawford,” Kennedy said. “… And those are just words. So you have to see it play out.”
The Red Sox begin their 2024 season Thursday night on the road against the Seattle Mariners.
