With the Boston Red Sox being officially eliminated from playoff contention, it led to Mazz asking the question: how much of a disappointment has the 2022 season been for the Red Sox?
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Mazz: This season, how big a fail is it, Murray? How big a fail is a Jimmy Stewart? How disappointing should fans be with this Red Sox season in 2022?
Jim Murray: They should be tremendously disappointed based on how this team at this time last year, or postseason, had the city in the palm of its hand, and it was buzz around the team that I think was more than even the 2018 World Series team. It was buzz I think akin to like 2013. People were way into it after they won that quick little playoff game with the Yankees. And it’s all of a sudden it’s like, okay, here they go. Like they’re going to be in the World Series again, probably win the damn thing. And obviously they fell short. But the buzz around them in the postseason last year was was truly palatable. And it felt like they were going to build off that. And instead it’s another last place finish. After that, I think it’s an incredible disappointment.
Mazz: Jimmy Stewart, what about you? What do you think?
J-Stew: Epic fail by this team. Tthey should be competing for the American League Championship Series from the fact that they have such a high payroll, they mismanaged so many things. Garrett Whitlock, among other things. Players underperforming, players at the All-Star break, asking for help and then going on a long losing streak. This is an epic fail. This is one of the worst Red Sox seasons of the last 20 years.
Mazz: I mean, this is a big blow.
Jim Murray: Not to cut you off, but real quick, but they like the other thing, too, is that the other thing hovering around them, all of them, like the last three or four months, is that whether or not they were going to be able to hang on to Xander Bogart’s or Rafael Devers, like, that’s repulsive.
Mazz: The whole thing, Murray! The whole the whole season is about loss and missed opportunities. It’s the whole thing is about. It’s an excellent point by you that if you look at it, you say, so this was Xander Bogaerts last year potentially in Boston. And if Rafael Devers doesn’t want to sign, it’a going to be his last year in Boston? Because they’ll be forced to trade Devers You can’t keep him. I look at the whole thing and I say, what a blown opportunity. And again, not just about the World Series, but for the reasons you were talking about. They were in game six of the ALCS last year. And you know what? That surge in September, late September and then October I don’t want to say came out of nowhere, because we had a stretch there in the middle of the year where they had the best record in the American League, and then they floundered right around the trade deadline, and we can examine all kinds of things about the relationship between the players, the manager, the coaching staff and the front office. Because clearly they were upset at last year’s deadline, they were upset again at this year’s deadline, they basically shut it down, or played like a team that was distracted and hurt. But at both deadlines over the last two years.