John Henry looks worse than ever after latest non-Red Sox moves

John Henry only matters to Boston Red Sox fans as the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox. And he still shows a stunning lack of care for how it looks when he makes decisions that obviously favor his other sports clubs.

Henry can say the Red Sox and the rest of his business holdings have nothing to do with each other all he wants. He won't say it anyway, because he's too afraid to say anything publicly. But regardless of the underlying truth, all he's done with his latest moves this week is open himself up to the same old criticism.

He's seemed checked out on the Red Sox for years, and these newest developments hammer that home.

The Rafael Devers trade blatantly prioritized dumping his contract. The Red Sox chose saving money over getting a better return of players for the slugger, who had become a malcontent this season, and gifted Henry a convenient excuse to unload the money.

That whole debacle was bad enough. But in classic Henry fashion, he took it a mile further by simultaneously swinging some big non-baseball deals, making himself look arguably the worst he's ever looked amid the Devers deal.

Mere days before the Red Sox traded Devers, The Athletic reported that the Liverpool soccer club were acquiring German midfielder Florian Wirtz for a transfer fee of €136.3 million, or about $156.5 million. The total fee would be a record amount for Liverpool. So, anyone who views the two aforementioned moves as Henry essentially trading Devers for Wirtz, isn't out of line to feel that way.

^{John Henry}

But wait, there's more! As reported in The Times in the UK on Tuesday, two days after the Devers trade, Fenway Sports Group is exploring the idea of expanding to the Spanish soccer league La Liga. They are reportedly in talks to acquire the club Getafe, as FSG "looks to develop a multi-club model," per The Times.

It's impossible for anyone with a brain or a soul to dismiss these high-stakes business maneuvers as unrelated coincidences. And for Red Sox fans, it's the latest slap in the face from an owner who simply doesn't understand, or worse doesn't care, about the emotions that intense fanbases carry with their teams. In Boston, sports teams are a passion, an identity. To Henry, they're just another asset in his portfolio.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any end in sight for Henry's slow-burning destruction of the Red Sox. The arrival of exciting young prospects like Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer won't quiet any concerns that they will eventually prove too expensive for FSG. Fans better pray that they can win while they're cheap.

But winning a World Series hasn't been a real priority for Henry since the Red Sox' last championship in 2018. The proliferation of analytics and AI in their operation obviously hasn't led to more wins, and there's little reason to believe it will any time soon.

Especially when the absentee owner is deciding he'd rather spend his money elsewhere.