BOSTON — Thanks to a nine-game winning streak nobody saw coming, the Boston Red Sox have rekindled one of big-league baseball’s favorite sum-sum-summertime parlor games. It’s called “Buyers or Sellers?” As in: Should the Sox be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline? Call now. Lines are open.
But c’mon, let’s assume the Red Sox of course will be buying, even if they might tilt more toward Target than Saks. (Welcome to Boston, Jahmai Jones!) Considering the Sox are just a half-game out in the three-legged race for the third American League wild-card berth, it would be an insult to their fanbase not to make a run. October baseball is still October baseball.
True, this is the same organization that in 2020 OK’d the Mookie Betts gift bag to the Los Angeles Dodgers and then tried to sell it as shrewd roster-building. That was six years ago, and with a different person (Chaim Bloom) running baseball ops than the fella who’s there now (Craig Breslow), but the ownership group that ordered up the g’bye to Mookie is still in place to say hello to any new acquisitions.
John Henry, the principal owner, has been a regular presence at Fenway Park this season. This means he’s seen the “SELL THE TEAM!” placards and heard the chants. If he happens to be at Fenway Park on Friday afternoon for the opener of a day-night doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays that’ll kickstart the post-All-Star break portion of the schedule, it’s likely most fans will be too busy cheering All-Star first baseman/keg o’ dynamite Willson Contreras to be jeering the owner. That’s not to say Henry and the rest of the ownership group deserve a collective attaboy. Even taking into account the injuries that have idled staff ace Garrett Crochet, star-in-the-making Roman Anthony, veteran shortstop Trevor Story and others, this was an awkwardly built roster from the beginning.
If Henry and club chairman Tom Werner (who I’ve always sensed is the biggest actual fan in the ownership wing) can take a few minutes during this homestand to step out to Jersey Street and talk with their fans, which is precisely what they did on Opening Day in 2002 as newly minted owners, they might be pleasantly surprised to find that the winning streak has awakened New England. Now, I admit my own fan survey is limited to the usual collection of people I consult on these matters, such as Nick, who works at my local coffee shop. (“My roommates have really bought in, so I guess I have as well,” Nick told me a few minutes ago as I queued up for a refill.)
Please don’t slew-foot me with your snarky counterpoint that six of those nine straight victories came against the forever-inept Los Angeles Angels and the galactically overrated New York Mets. I don’t care if the streak included six victories over the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Nine in a row is nine in a row.
Besides, the Red Sox have been fun lately. The defense has been stupendous, especially from center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Caleb Durbin, built more like a third-and-1 halfback than a third baseman, has hit .325 over his past 23 games, raising his average from .190 to .228. He also has some pop (nine home runs) on a team that’s shockingly short of long-ball hitters, a concern that was being raised as far back as last Christmas. Left-hander Payton Tolle, just 23, has a great personality and greater stuff. He would have fit in so well with the back-in-the-day Big Papi-Pedro Martinez-Manny Ramirez-Johnny Damon-Kevin Millar Red Sox. (Am I the only one who sees a resemblance between Tolle and the “Justin” character from the “Good Things Are in Store” Stop & Shop commercials?)
One of the unfortunate by-products of the Boston sports market’s run of 21st-century championships (six by the Patriots, four by the Red Sox, two by the Celtics, one by the Bruins) is that “scrappy underdog”-type teams are no longer celebrated. It’s either win it all or fire ’em all. Still, while Sox fans have every right to continue raising questions about ownership, it’s not the current players’ fault. At a time when they could easily have quit, they haven’t. It’s incumbent, then, on Breslow to help them out.
This team needs a power hitter or two. And if one of those power hitters is a veteran who can bring leadership to the clubhouse, so much the better. As much excitement as Contreras brings to the Red Sox, he can’t keep going top turnbuckle over every real or imagined slight. The word is out: All it takes is a Moonlight Graham-type wink aimed in his direction to get him to overreact. Contreras has said recently he is going to calm down from here on out, which is good news for the Red Sox.
I know what some of you are thinking: Boston’s nine-game winning streak and the excitement it has generated could very well empower Red Sox management to roll out a few show pony-type deals leading up to the trade deadline. You know, do just enough to whet the appetites of the ticket-purchasing masses. And then, during the offseason, the Sox could return to the same storylines about being “in” on this or that player who winds up signing elsewhere. (All of this assumes MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association won’t wind up climbing into a couple of barrels and going over the edge at Lockout Falls.)
Remember, this Red Sox ownership has been on the scene for four World Series championships, the first of which, in 2004, inspired then-Sox catcher Jason Varitek to holler, “I’ll never have to hear that ‘1918’ chant again!” inside a champagne-soaked visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium II. This Red Sox ownership turned the deft trick of making multiple renovations at Fenway Park without sacrificing its unique quaintness and historical importance. This Red Sox ownership has continued to champion the Jimmy Fund, the fundraising arm of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
It’s an ownership that now parrots its own hitters in that it doesn’t take a lot of big swings, and when it does, it tends to hit chip shots back this way. Sooner or later, Red Sox fans are going to stop playing Charlie Brown to Lucy’s football. Now is the time to address that issue. And the offseason — again, assuming there’s ball to be played in 2027 — will be the time for ownership to reinforce its belief in building powerhouse rosters as opposed to being just good enough to snag a wild-card berth.
For now, just good enough to snag a wild-card berth will have to do.