Ben Cherington and the delusion of turning the Red Sox back into a contender
COMMENTARY
Ben Cherington is either providing a whole mess of doublespeak, or he’s just downright delusional.
Nobody was truly expecting the Red Sox general manager to rip John Farrell when he spoke with reporters at Minute Maid Field in Houston on Wednesday. Cherington wasn’t going to realistically admit the Red Sox baseball operations’ pathetic talent evaluation, or call Pablo Sandoval the biggest free agent bust since Carl Crawford.
But the Red Sox — losers of seven straight now, the only team in Major League Baseball not to have won post-All-Star break — are in crisis mode. Yet Cherington and Co. still seem to carry the aura that they, quite simply, have no idea what the hell they are doing.
“We’re not where we want to be,’’ Cherington said before watching his team lose to the Astros, 4-2, and fall a season-high 11 games back in the American League East. “The last 10 days hasn’t gone well. Not the way we wanted it to go.’’
Ten days? How about the last two years?
How about the last three out of four?
“We’re capable of winning on any night,’’ he said. “We haven’t delivered as a group nearly enough the last two years. We have to deliver more.
“I still believe there a lot of good things going on in the organization and at the major league level. I still believe sooner rather than later we’re going to have a really good team at the major league level and we’re going to win a lot more games. But I also understand if people are tired of hearing that. They want to see results. We understand that.’’
If that sounds like an admission of a rebuilding effort, well, not exactly. In a confounding move Wednesday, the Red Sox sent left-handed rookie Brian Johnson back to Pawtucket in order to call up the beleaguered Joe Kelly, who might be watching that Cy Young Award slip away from his grasp.
Kelly was awful, giving up six hits and four runs, all scored on the trio of home runs he surrendered to the Astros, over 5 1/3 innings. Basically, it was the same Joe Kelly you remembered prior to his demotion last month. Bad time to mention that John Lackey is coming off a seven-inning, one run performance against the New York Mets over the weekend?
Why is Kelly starting in the first place? It’s no secret that the assumption to Kelly’s value is to morph him into a reliever and a role where he can better utilize his fastball late in games. And why is he on the roster at the expense of Johnson, a 24-year-old hurler who could be a pivotal part of this rotation in 2016?
On that note, why is Henry Owens still in Pawtucket?
Why is Jackie Bradley, Jr. not being given another shot in the majors?
Where is Rusney Castillo, even considering the potential to crash and burn?
Cherington says he wants the team to be one thing, but the product presented on a nightly basis is anything but that aspiration. But with the season all but over, shouldn’t now be the time to bring up that young talent it, groom it, and see what you might have for next year and beyond?
“Sometimes in that transition comes lower level of performance,’’ Cherington said. “We’ve seen that over time, historically. One thing we’d like to see is just get fully past those transitions and get a better sense of where everything is.’’
Perfect.
Then where is it?
We’ll probably get a better sense as to whether or not Cherington is serious about such a transition after next week’s trading deadline, when guys like Koji Uehara, Mike Napoli, Ryan Hanigan, and Shane Victorino could be headed elsewhere whether it be via trade or, in the cases of Napoli and Victorino, designated for assignment. That would free up at least a spot in the outfield for Bradley and/or Castillo, or potentially both on the days when David Ortiz is willing to play first base, yielding the designated hitter role to Hanley Ramirez.
An outfield of Mookie Betts-Bradley-Castillo is a compelling reason to pay some continued attention. A rotation boasting Eduardo Rodriguez, Johnson, and Owens to go along with Wade Miley and Rick Porcello would at least give the team an idea what it has on its hands before adding David Price or Johnny Cueto to the mix during the offseason.
But if it’s Victorino, Napoli, and Joe Kelly continuing in the same roles after July 31, you have every right to denounce your trust in the direction of this franchise.
Because right now the 42-54 Red Sox are the worst team in the American League. Only the Philadelphia Phillies (minus-152) and the Chicago White Sox (minus-74) have worse run differentials than Boston’s minus-69. The Sox are five games in back of the Baltimore Orioles for fourth place in the division, 9 1/2 back in the wild card race.
If the Red Sox brass thinks that the majority of their fan base can’t take the reality of a situation that has grown grim, then they truly think you are stupid. The nightmare situation is that the team tries to appease that tiny segment that still believes by trading away young talent at the deadline for an arm. Just remember, if you trade for Cole Hamels, you are married to Cole Hamels.
“I don’t think it changes anything in the big picture,’’ Cherington said about the team’s losing streak. “We’ve still got to pursue things that are going to make us better and continue to try to build a good team.’’
He forgot to add “in 2016.’’
Good God, let’s hope he forgot to add that.
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