There’s no honor in holding onto ownership when you’ve stopped caring.
The Red Sox are a civic institution exactly when the owners think so, and not when they don’t. With almost three decades under their belts, the current Sox ownership group has overseen more success than any in history. And it’s time for them to go.
There is exactly one thing I want out of my owners, and it’s for them to be hungry. John Henry is not hungry. He’s happy to throw down an espresso after a full meal, but the meal has been consumed. The check is coming.
Frankly, it can’t come soon enough. The sooner Red Sox fans realize that ownership is their enemy, the sooner we move past the times that Sam Kennedy can rhapsodize about championship teams he had little or nothing to do with and say we should still just be happy about them. Which, to be clear, I am. But I’m able to hold several ideas in my mind at once. And right now, despite the team’s success, I don’t love what I’m seeing.
On the field, the team is better than they have been in more than five years. It’s lovely. But it’s done so while wearing a muzzle Henry put on them years ago. If the Mookie Betts trade wasn’t the prime example of this, the Rafael Devers trade was. A spiraling Craig Breslow (and a Bill Simmonsy Bill Simmons) could be proven correct, and the team is better off with Devers, but I remain unconvinced. Having good baseball players is the key to winning baseball games.
The good part is that the Sox have been winning without Devers. The bad part, prohibitively, is that it may not be enough, and in Breslow’s defense, it’s possible that even if they still had Raffy they’d come up short. Also in Bres’s defense, tho, this is the best Red Sox team in years either way. I prefer good teams to bad ones, and love these dudes.
Which brings us to the real question: Do we need the Sox to compete for the title, or do we just want them to be fun? Secondly, how long can they be fun without competing for the title? I’m sure they can last the year in that zone, but starting in 2026, it might not be an option. So I hope they’re planning ahead. Are they? Does that sound like something Henry would do? Search your feelings and take your time. They’re not going anywhere.