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Mazz: Separating the believable from the bull crap in the Red Sox rhetoric

• Sam Kennedy: “It’s time.”

  OK, at the risk of being a wiseass … when Kennedy says “it’s time,” are we allowed to ask the obvious?

  Time for what?

  Whether it was Kennedy, Breslow or Alex Cora, there was an obvious theme from the Sox on Monday: the fans have been patient. (I disagree and think the fans are fed up, but that’s a different discussion.) The reason this is noteworthy is because it feels like an organizational admission that they’ve let you down with a construction project that has made The Big Dig look like something as simple as installing a port-a-potty. So, are they serious now? Or is this just more lip service designed to suck you in? The Red Sox have so frequently and consistently failed to give you a worthwhile product in recent years that it’s now impossible to believe them even if they are telling the truth. As such, we have no choice but to deem this particular claim to be BULL CRAP.

  One other thing worth noting: for the first time in a loooong time, Kennedy didn’t suggest the Sox would be “competitive.” Instead, he referenced a division title and also went to far as to say that any aspiring team “can’t mess around with 83, 84 and 85 wins – that’s not where you want to be.” Well, well, well … now we’re talking. Years ago, the Sox aspired to win 95 games every season and have an above-average player as every position. Maybe they’re getting back to that.

  But before we all take the cheese, let’s see if they put their money (proverbially and literally) where their mouths are. And that also means whether they’re prepared to pull the trigger on big trades.

• Breslow: “I think we’re here. I think we’re ready to deliver.”

  From the Red Sox’ perspective, this was obviously the biggest talking point and point of emphasis in their year-end messaging: the worst is over. We’re including it here to amplify that point and also provide the perspective of the person heading baseball ops. But I’ll say the same thing as above: even if you want to believe Breslow and Kennedy – and we all want that – you can’t. Too much damage has been done. Back in the spring – and I’m paraphrasing here – Kennedy said the investment of ownership would depend on the state of the rebuild. Many people – including Jared Carrabis of Underdog Fantasy – took that to mean that the Sox will amp up their investment when the organizational reaches a certain point. It’s hard to get any more definitive about their arrive when Breslow says, “I think we’re here.”

  But I repeat: you can’t spend six years losing people’s trust and get it back in six minutes. As such, the verdict on this type of rhetoric remains as above. BULL CRAP. But if the Red Sox show up at spring training following a killer offseason, we’ll all happily admit we were wrong. What Boston wants is a real product and a real team. The last six years have generally been half-assed.

• Breslow: “We need to improve our defense…”

  In outlining the team’s needs for 2025, Breslow rattled off these four things: Defense, bullpen, lineup balance (meaning right-handed power) and starting pitching depth. Generally speaking, we’ll call this remark BELIEVABLE.  The problem is that the Sox basically had the same four issues last year. So will they truly fix them all this time? Time will tell. But at least they’re not feeding us garbage. (At least not totally – which we’ll to further in a moment.) The defensive ineptitude over the last five years has been embarrassing. And before you tell me that errors are an archaic statistic, you should know the Sox also rank 22nd in defensive runs saved and 26th in defensive outs above average. Plain and simple, their defense has sucked. And nothing makes you look more like a Mickey Mouse operation than treating the baseball as if it’s radioactive.

  One nit to pick: the Sox need more than rotation “depth.” They need a legitimate front end starter and it wouldn’t kill them to get a left-hander. They had a chance to get pitching on a good market last offseason and failed miserably, who served up a major league-leading 41 home runs in 2023 before injuring his elbow in spring training. (In 2024, the home run king was Sox righty Kutter Crawford, who gave up 34 bombs.) Having both of those guys on the staff feels like kids playing with fireworks. One of those guys (Crawford) should probably go in a trade with some prospects for a real pitcher or the allegedly improved defense isn’t going to matter. Last time I checked, you can’t catch home runs.

• Breslow: “At this point, everything has to be on the table.”

  Now this feels like a whopper, which is why we’re going to call it BULL CRAP. Breslow did qualify this remark by stressing that Sox will only trade players for whom they can get equal value, so let’s see what happens on the trade market throughout the game. Triston Casas was the recent subject of speculation by the respected Ken Rosenthal and the Sox plenty of young, left-handed hitters available to move. If someone like Tarik Skubal moves – particularly if it’s to a fellow AL competitor – the Sox are going to look like clowns again. Nobody wants to hear excuses anymore. If you don’t want to pay the price, someone else will.

  Here’s the point: saying that everyone is in play on the trade market and actually meaning it are two different things. And no matter what they say, there is simply no way the Sox are going to trade someone like left-handed-hitting outfielder Roman Anthony, who is being talked about in superstar terms. With the ascension of the-right-handed-hitting Kristian Campbell, Vaughn Grissom should be an easy player to move. Either Wilyer Abreu or Jarren Duran could be expendable. Connor Wong is expendable. The list goes on and on. In the end, we’re going to judge Breslow on what he does, not what he says. Let’s see if the actions live up to the words.

• Breslow: “Our hope is that they’re ready to step in early next year.”

  Words can be manipulated, of course, but we’re going to call this BELIEVABLE. Red Sox prospects Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel (both picture above) as well as Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell have been hyped as the saviors of the Red Sox – and by all accounts all four should be legitimate big leaguers. Does that mean they’ll all pan out? No. Maybe one of them (Mayer?) would even be a candidate for trade. But the guess is that those four players are indeed untouchable, particularly after the Sox treated their arrival at Triple-A as if they were The Beatles.

  One thing: the phrase “early next year” does not mean the start of the season. (Jarren Duran, for example, made his debut on July 17, 2021.) By postponing the debuts of (in alphabetical order) Anthony, Campbell, Mayer and Teel, the Sox can close to seven seasons out of each player. (The Red Sox didn’t use to handle their prospects in such small-market fashion, but that feels inevitable now.) Also, integrating them all the same time doesn’t seem to make much sense, particularly if the Sox want to be in the playoffs in 2025. As such, expect some sort of staggered entry, particularly because Mayer (injury) did not play a single game at Triple-A in 2024. Regardless, they’re all going to need time to adapt to the majors, which puts the pressure on Breslow to have a good nucleus in place when the season starts.