But what the hell is going on with the Boston Red Sox this 2024 off-season?
As my colleague Pascal Harvey wrote recently, the Red Sox have acted like a small-market club since the Texas Rangers were crowned World Series champions.
This perception seems even more true when we see the way in which they handled the Teoscar Hernandez case. Remember that late Sunday evening, the former Astros, Blue Jays and more recently Mariners signed a one-season, $23.5 million deal with the powerful and threatening Los Angeles Dodgers.
Sources close to the matter indicate, for their part, that the Red Sox had also submitted an offer to try to acquire the services of the outfielder. However, this offer was ridiculous to say the least, allow me the understatement here.
We are talking about a two-year contract offer for a total of $28 million, for a player of the caliber and the makings of Teo.
Being Teoscar Hernandez, I too would have accepted the Dodgers' offer, how about you?
A crying need for launchers
Sure, at least Boston was in the Hernandez derby to improve their club. That said, if, like Guy Nantel, we did a vox pop in the streets of the capital of Massachusetts to ask Sox fans what the main problem with their beloved team is, it's a safe bet that the most popular among fans would have been at the level of pitchers in general, and starters, more precisely!
Lucas Giolito will provide great service to his new team. On the other hand, the loss of Chris Sale will only make the situation worse, even if the latter never really met the high expectations placed on him after the conquest of the Holy Grail of 2018 and his contract extension of five years and 145 million signed in March 2019.
When looking at the Red Sox website, more particularly in the starting pitcher section, in addition to Giolito, we find Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock and Kutter Crawford. Without wanting to disrespect anyone, because I personally have a lot of difficulty throwing a ball directly into my teammate's glove, these are not pitchers who will guide a club to the World Series, we agree!
The Red Sox finished last in their division in 2023 and, if things continue like this, this catastrophic scenario risks repeating itself for 2024. Long gone seem the days when the Red Sox could count on Pedro Martinez, Kurt Schilling , Jon Lester, David Price, etc.
It appears that Boston leaders lied to supporters during the end-of-campaign review when they said they wanted to go full throttle for the next season!
