Greed’s been good for the Red Sox, though it’s forcing more tough questions
It ain't the old days, for the Red Sox or for any of us. But we're already seeing a sliver of the future.
COMMENTARY
Side effects of success can include swelling in the chest, and to that end, the Red Sox and their supporters have established the slogan that will don the T-shirts, rally towels, and hashtags should they be needed down the stretch.
“We’ll see what happens in a month or month and a half. We just need to keep playing better baseball,” manager Alex Cora told reporters in late June. “I know we’ve been talking about the Wild Card and all that stuff.
“Let’s get greedy.”
It’s not the first time he said it; I found a reference from May’s Tampa series, and I’m sure there are others. He’s said it multiple times since the above, and I’ll be shocked if this week’s final homestand before the All-Star break — execrable Oakland, fellow wild-card hopeful Kansas City — doesn’t have some sort of “get greedy” chatter in the commercial breaks.
From the 100 miles up where a lot of people are still watching this team, it was taken as Cora speaking publicly to his bosses, appealing for a change after back-to-back years of a fringy contender Red Sox team getting little short-term help at the trade deadline. On close reading, that pretty clearly wasn’t the case, but Cora clarified to MassLive last week anyway.
“I’m trying to get this group to understand we’re good enough to be better. . . . The greedy part is challenging this group to keep going,” Cora said. “Like, ‘Don’t settle because we’re in the hunt for a playoff spot.’ No. Just keep pushing, keep pushing. If we do it as a group, you’ll never know what can happen.”
We’re already there, of course. Three All-Stars, all homegrown no less, would’ve been a prepostrous thing to propose in February. Doubly prepostrous would’ve been pointing out there would be arguable cases for Kenley Jansen and Connor Wong, too.
A season pegged for mediocrity, that could’ve quickly gone south without Lucas Giolito and Trevor Story and Triston Casas and Garrett Whitlock, has actual aspirations into the moist months. Tanner Houck has played the rotation leader so many thought he’d never be. Jarren Duran has been . . . I hesitate to say the sunniest projection of what he could be, because who really foresaw a player who literally changes games more nights than not?
And while we’re here, if I asked you to predict where Rafael Devers ranks in the AL in OPS, you’d guess lower than fourth, right? Aaron Judge (a comic 1.105), Gunnar Henderson, Juan Soto, and Devers (.971). Probably a function of his season-long weakness in big spots, though he’s hot lately — 7 of 14 with four walks (three intentional) with men on dating to June 30.
Everything’s relative, though. Devers has put the Sox in the lead 14 times this season, 11 via hits and seven via homers. Tyler O’Neill (12) and Wilyer Abreu (11) are the only others with more than six, per Baseball Reference.
It’s hard to fault Cora’s for aspiring. A month ago, when we talked about the American League, it was the Orioles and the Yankees and everyone else. New York’s since fallen behind the Guardians, a genuine low-budget surprise, and lost 9.5 games relative to Boston in just three and a half weeks.
Even before that, though, we revisit our refrain for Rob Manfred’s MLB. Baseball has prioritized the eh over the excellent. Three wild cards in each league. Four rounds of playoffs. Going 162-0 still means needing to win a best-of-five immediately after you’ve been sitting for a week.
This is genuine contention, believe it or not. A crummy state of affairs in the big picture, but in the small, enough to revive the memories of a winter unfulfilled. It’s (rightful!) demands for at least a little throttle, if not full.
I thought of it in Cora’s words praising his All-Stars and his organization Sunday, when he noted “sometimes we get caught up in trying to be somebody else or trying to emulate other organizations. That’s a reminder that the Red Sox have done it the right way for a while.”
I thought of it again when Bill James, the heart of so much modern baseball thinking, took a more direct shot.
“The trade deadline,” he posted on social media, “is the best opportunity a team has all year to make a HUGE mistake.”
James has deleted some of his discussion, but much of the crux of it was pushing against the outside pressure to “do something!” which often follows surges like the one the Red Sox have put together.
“I am certain that [Sox chief baseball officer Craig] Breslow is doing the best he can to find a deadline deal that will help the team,” James wrote Monday. “I am also certain that he shouldn’t make a deal just because it is the best he can do.”
To which the rational among us say, “Yeah. Obviously.”
It reminds of the backlash to John Henry — owner of both the Red Sox and Boston Globe Media Partners, which includes Boston.com — and his claim that “fans expect championships almost annually. They easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are.”
In brief, it’s a gross oversimplification of criticism. Much likes James’s is a gross oversimplification of the desire to see a good team supplemented.
The core of both ends of the argument is the same. This season, the one happening now, can be a priority without mortgaging the future. It has been done here countless times. Like, say . . .
Do you remember who the Red Sox traded away in 2021? Aldo Ramirez, Alex Scherff, and Michael Chavis. You miss any of them recently? (The Ice Horse has been in four organizations since he left, and is currently a Triple-A Charlotte Knight, before you ask.)
In the moment, that felt like an underwhelming deadline. One that needed a secondary move that didn’t come. In hindsight? Delivered in full. No one’s going to sniff at that kind of deadline in 2024.
The road to where these Red Sox are has been anything but smooth. From dodging boos at Winter Weekend in January to the plague of injuries to the formation of a genuinely must-watch team capable of anything at any moment. (Nine steals? Six errors? Who knows! NESN, starting at 6!)
One of the saving graces has been Cora, maligned in some corners since he returned for his teams’ fades but having a free-agent year like you dream about. Another is Breslow, who brought in smart people from the jump, is nosing around to find where he can bring in more, and who we have no reason to think won’t go into this deadline with a plan laden with Plan Bs.
It ain’t the old days, for the Red Sox or for any of us. But we’re already seeing a sliver of the Red Sox future in what they’ve been this season.
Hard to fault any of us the side effect of wanting a little bit more.
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