Red Sox owner John Henry has no plans to sell team: ‘We generally don’t sell assets’
In a lengthy interview with the Financial Times, Henry dispelled rumors that his 22-year ownership of the Red Sox was coming to a close.
After months of speculation, following consecutive disappointing Red Sox seasons, John Henry says he has no plans of selling the team.
In a long email interview with the Financial Times, Henry addressed the mounting concerns surrounding his dedication to the franchise.
“My wife and I live and work in Boston,” he said. “We are committed to the city, the region. So the Sox are not going to come up for sale. We generally don’t sell assets.”
The Fenway Sports Group (FSG) founder — who owns not only the Red Sox, but also the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins and Premier League’s Liverpool F.C., in addition to Boston Globe Media Partners including Boston.com — made a bid to assume a stake in the PGA Tour last June.
The Red Sox sit just above .500 for the 2024 season. When chairman Tom Werner promised fans a “full-throttle” winter, the expectation was that the organization would spend available cash on roster improvements.
On Dec. 9, superstar pitcher Shohei Ohtani inked a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers.
“(Werner’s comments) overshadowed every other word, paragraph and interview of the winter because it reaches so deeply into the false belief that many fans and media have that you should mortgage the future each year for the present,” Henry told the Financial Times. “You have to base acquisitions and dispositions on the future, not the past. That is unpopular generally.”
The club finished at the bottom of the AL East for three of the last four seasons. The narrative, he said, is far from the reality of professional baseball.
“Because fans expect championships almost annually,” he said, “they easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30.”
For more, read Henry’s full interview with the Financial Times.
