The Red Sox front office has already failed
The Red Sox currently sit at 53-46, 2.0 games out of the wild card in the American League and with the trade deadline looming many fans expect and want the team to buy at the deadline but is it already too late? Boston has far exceeded many expectations this season with their impressive first half but did the front office already fail the team by not adding in the offseason or earlier in the season to help the team, I’m starting to think so.
Boston has overperformed to this point of the season with Duran and Houck having career years but they’ve both never been tasked with as much responsibility and necessity as they have been this season. Kutter Crawford is another guy who has never pitched as many innings as he’s expected to this season. So while the Red Sox have overperformed is the return to the mean going to be too staggering to overcome because of the roster construction? I believe that the Sox front office failed this team before the season even started because of how they handled the offseason, if you add pitching now it doesn’t change the innings Houck and Crawford have already been asked to throw.
Boston also has the hardest schedule in the league in the second half and with a bullpen in shambles those inning eaters are only going to be harder to come by. I hope the Red Sox front office doesn’t take this small sample size after the break where the Sox have struggled and use it to not invest at the deadline but fans have every reason to be skeptical of ownership and upper managements commitment to the teams success. The team has played well enough and got themselves into position where the front office should be investing in them, but if they invested in the team in the first place during the offseason the uphill battle of the second half would be far less steep.
Alex Cora’s future is another major storyline for the Sox heading into the second half of the season, could management investing in this team persuade Cora to stick around? I’m not so sure but it certainly wouldn’t hurt and if this team could get into the playoffs and make some noise it would at least give Cora some pause to leaving in the offseason.
So while the Sox have been a great story to this point in the season fans have every right to be upset with how the offseason was handled looking at where the team is now and where they could have been if the front office invested just a little more in the spring. If they do invest at the deadline it’ll be a positive sign for Sox fans. However I still have pause it will be enough to keep Cora and maintain the team’s success from the first half.
