Red Sox’ Tom Werner revisits ‘full throttle’ comments amid quiet offseason

"Maybe that wasn’t the most artful way of saying what I wanted to say."

Tom Werner's comments this offseason have drawn plenty of criticism. Jim Davis / The Boston Globe

January 16, 2024

3 minutes to read

Despite the team posting a last-place finish for the third time in four seasons in 2023, optimism hovered over the Red Sox this fall.

After firing chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in September and replacing him with Craig Breslow the following month, the writing seemed to be on the wall that Boston was ready to open up its wallet this offseason.

Already bolstered by a stacked farm system featuring prospects like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel, Boston presumably had plenty of fiscal flexibility this winter, with the team well below MLB’s first competitive tax threshold of $237 million.

Red Sox team chairman Tom Werner added more fuel to the fire regarding an impactful offseason in Boston following Breslow’s opening press conference as the team’s top baseball executive.

“We know that we have to be competitive next year,” Werner noted, as transcribed by MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam back in November. “So we’re going to be competitive next year. We’re going to have [to] be full throttle in every possible way.”

More than two months later, those comments have come to haunt the Red Sox amid an offseason featuring few franchise-altering moves and a lack of significant payroll spending.

With the start of spring training less than a month away, Breslow and the Red Sox have whiffed on several premier free agents like Yoshinobu Yamamoto — while also failing to sign appealing middle-tier targets like lefty starter Shōta Imanaga or power-hitting outfielder Teoscar Hernández.

The most sizable moves pulled off by Breslow have involved trading two veterans off the roster in Chris Sale and Alex Verdugo.

Boston remains nearly $35 million below that CBT threshold of $237 million, with the Red Sox reportedly telling one free-agent target that they needed to clear additional payroll if they wanted to “aggressively” pursue him this winter.

The Red Sox’ inaction this offseason has drawn criticism from both fans and media alike.

“What we’ve seen so far — like I said, some nice moves, but of the lesser variety — this is not full throttle,” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal said on his “Fair Territory” podcast in December.

In an interview with McAdam on Tuesday, Werner tried to explain the rationale behind his “full throttle” declaration earlier this offseason.

“Maybe that wasn’t the most artful way of saying what I wanted to say, which is that we’re going to be pressing all levers to improve the team,” Werner told McAdam. “In the end, nobody’s happy with our performance the last few years. Some years, we go after somebody who is about to be a free agent, or was a free agent, as it pertains to Trevor Story or Raffy Devers.

“We felt very strongly that we were going to compete for Yamamoto’s services. But in the end, he went to another team. But we felt [we were] in the mix and we were going to be competitive. We certainly aren’t happy with the current roster as it was at the end of last year, so if I was going to say it again, I would say that we’re going to be pressing all levers and weren’t going to be happy with just one (method) — that includes free agency, trades or talent from Triple and Double A. I think that’s really what I meant.

“In the end, we don’t have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig (Breslow) is going to deliver on his assurance that we’re going to be competitive.”

As of Tuesday, the Red Sox’ top additions this offseason have been righty Lucas Giolito, second baseman Vaughn Grissom, and outfielder Tyler O’Neil.

“I think we need to be competitive,” Werner told McAdam. “We were competitive for the early part of the season last year and then obviously the wheels came off. But I think the fans expect us to be relentless about a competitive team. The thinking (behind) the trade that we made (in moving) Chris Sale — and I have great fondness for Chris Sale — was not about shedding salary as much as it was having more competitive pitching going forward and more control of competitive pitching.

“I guess the message is that we are confident that we’re going to field a competitive team and that we’re going to let Craig do what he does best, which is to build exactly that.”