* If past is prologue, we can expect the Red Sox to break out the checkbook this winter and instruct whomever is the new lead baseball executive to spend to his/her content.
That’s been the modus operandi of ownership when things have unraveled in the past. Desperate times — and two straight last-place finishes in the division qualifies — call for desperate measures. Plus, there’s the underlying narrative that more aggressive spending can fix a lot of issues and turn the team into contenders again. That would enable the Red Sox to continue to make Chaim Bloom out to be the fall guy. See, as soon as we identified the problem, we showed big improvement.
And it’s likely that strategy will work. The Red Sox sorely need two quality starters and there’s plenty from which to choose on the upcoming free agent market. Should the Sox be able to find 350 or so quality innings with their money, they could well be a playoff team in 2024.
But let’s remember that big payrolls don’t necessarily equate to big results. Having one of the bigger payrolls in the game gives you a better chance to reach October, but it hardly serves as a guarantee.
The top three spenders in MLB in 2023 — the New York Mets, San Diego Padres and New York Yankees — will all be in the same position as the Red Sox when the postseason gets underway: watching from afar on TV.
That’s not to suggest that the Red Sox don’t need to step up their payroll commitment after dropping out of the top-third in spending this past season. They do.
It is to suggest that profligate spending has its limits if that spending isn’t allocated wisely.
* Seems to me that the last thing Mac Jones needs is an ongoing debate over whether he’s a dirty player. Maybe try walking away from some of those post-whistle scrums?
* Not that you need any more evidence to see what kind of person Curt Schilling has become, but his cowardly silence in the aftermath of disclosing private medical information of someone he calls a friend has been telling. Schilling remains incapable of ever admitting he’s wrong, because in his twisted mind, that would reveal some weakness. For all his considerable exploits in 2004, Schilling should be an icon in this region; instead, he’s seen to it that he’s widely viewed as a pariah, toxic to all those with whom he comes in contact.
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* You can find more maturity and sportsmanship on most kindergarten playgrounds than we saw on display at Marco Simone Country Club in Rome the last few days. Remind me again: are they competing for the Ryder Cup or the sippy cup?
* I had the Red Sox winning 82 games and finishing fourth in the division. In March, that looked plausible. As recently as a month ago, it even looked likely. That was before they pulled the ripcord on the 2023 season. Now, they’ll finish last and their win total will start with a 7. Still, not a bad pick.
Just don’t ask which team I picked to finish behind them.
* I know the Bruins aren’t viewing this as any sort of bridge year or even a rebuild, but if there were ever a time to give some kids a chance, especially among the bottom six, this is it. I’d rather watch Matthew Poitras or Georgii Merkulov than some NHL retreads. Plus, in a year when they’re up against the cap, they can be paid the league minimum. Every little bit of savings helps.
* As Week 4 in the NFL gets underway, there’s a grand total of three undefeated teams remaining. Is that parity? Or parody?
* Despite Alex Cora disavowing any current interest in moving upstairs to the front office, I keep hearing a lot of people in the game say: “Don’t be surprised if….”
* Predictably, the legalization of sports betting is proving to be both a blessing (in the form of new, lucrative revenue streams) and a curse (players getting involved and suspended) for each of the pro sports leagues. Just this past Friday, the NFL adjusted some penalties for players found guilty of placing bets. Pro sports leagues have to be vigilant in prohibiting anyone associated with the game from betting, even on their teams. Once you introduce a question about the veracity of the outcome, you’ve poisoned the well and invited fans to question the legitimacy of the competition.
* There are obstacles from the union, I know, but the fact that Angel Hernandez continues to work as an umpire is an outright embarrassment to Major League Baseball. I’d love to see commissioner Rob Manfred invoke the “best interest of the game” clause and suspend Hernandez indefinitely — and then let the case play out in legal channels. Such a move would be backed by the vast majority of players and managers, to say nothing of the points Manfred would score with the game’s fan base.
* Christian Gonzalez is the real deal, apparently.
* I suspect many of you, like me, now start the day with the “Immaculate Grid.” I’m partial, predictably, to the baseball version, but all of them are fun and provide almost as much stimulation as a crossword puzzle. Kudos, too, for people at Sports Reference, who now own and host the grids, for archiving past puzzles.
* He can be contrarian, but give some credit to Nick Pivetta. Exiled to the bullpen in May, he slowly regained everyone’s trust and from July 7 through his final start of the season, pitched to a 3.32 ERA in either bulk relief assignments or starts. That’s enough to pencil him as a back-end piece to the rotation next year.
* Trading Alex Verdugo this winter sounds like a good idea until you start to consider how little value he has. Verdugo has just one more year of control remaining and at this point and his reputation throughout the game isn’t helping any. Then there’s his performance: in each of his first four seasons in Boston, his OPS+ has declined, to the point where he enters the final weekend of 2023 with an OPS+ of 101. Translated: he’s exactly one percent better than average.
