WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 09: Principal owner John W. Henry (L) and Chairman Thomas Werner (2nd L) listen during a South Lawn event to honor the Boston Red Sox at the White House May 9, 2019 in Washington, DC. President Donald Trump hosted the Boston Red Sox to honor their championship of the 2018 World Series.(Alex Wong/Getty Images)
By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
Imagine trading Mookie Betts, the face of your franchise, for two (probably broken) prospects in an obvious cost-cutting move. Now imagine not having the foresight to realize that your fans and media were going to be upset with such a move.
Welcome to the apparent, absurdly out-of-touch world of Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner.
With the mega-blockbuster that’d send Betts (and David Price) to the Dodgers on hold due to some funky medicals and long-term projections on Brusdar Graterol’s ceiling — as well as the Red Sox’ subsequent, and currently still-unmet, requests for more — Ken Rosenthal shed some light on some of Boston’s thinking with everybody and everything involved in limbo.
In other words, Sox ownership is now thinking twice about the original deal because of how it’s been perceived.
Truly shocking stuff.
If what Rosenthal is saying is true (and there’s really no reason to doubt him), the Red Sox were somehow taken aback by the fact that not everybody was on board with their thought process. I mean, it’s hard to not see things from their point of view. Teams worth actual billions of dollars should always trade a 27-year-old who has won an MVP, a batting title, and earned four All-Star and four Gold Glove awards for peanuts, and to avoid a luxury tax penalty. Oh, and they should also have to eat half of David Price’s contract, which was a mistake from the start in price alone, to make it happen.
All to acquire Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo (a player arriving to Boston with injury concerns) and Graterol (a starter but actually a reliever pushing 270 pounds and with Tommy John to his name before the age of 22).
Gee, can’t see the problems here.
But you know it’s created one hell of a headache for new Sox front office head Chaim Bloom.
If Bloom is left to search for more because the Red Sox ownership group is unhappy with the perception of the return for a superstar and viable starter (when healthy), the Sox have problems much greater than Graterol’s arm and Verdugo’s back.
And, most of all, there’s no way they’ll be able to spin this negative into a positive as long as Betts is still leaving.