John Henry isn’t exactly public-facing these days, so those who work for him tend to have to answer questions about his role and how he feels about the team.
The young Red Sox have been a pleasant surprise this season, and their trade deadline approach reflected that. They sent out a bevy of prospects in deals that ultimately netted them a catcher in Danny Jansen, a James Paxton reunion, a pair of veteran relievers in Lucas Sims and Luis Garcia, and a young starter in Quinn Priester who will report to Triple-A Worcester.
It wasn’t a splashy couple of days for the Red Sox, but probably an accurate reflection of where they’re at: deserving of upgrades, but not of buying with reckless abandon.
The Red Sox’ approach to baseball operation has taken a decided shift over recent years, and running concurrently with that has been Henry’s general absence from speaking about the team. As such, it is tough to get a pulse on where he stands with the direction of the team, and how large of a role he’s playing in driving that.
Breslow suggested Wednesday on The Greg Hill Show that Henry gives him room to do his job.
"John is very, very supportive," Breslow said. "He's very in tune with the players across the league, with our prospects, with the needs of our major league team. I very much keep him up to date on the conversations that we're having.
"If he has thoughts he'll share them, but I've come to appreciate that I was hired to be the chief baseball decision maker and he allows me to do that."
Since Chaim Bloom was in charge and the Red Sox got a little tighter with the pursestrings, there has been a suggestion that it is Henry directing such an approach. But Breslow saying Henry lets him do his job essentially is a tacit admission that Henry is staying out of the way.
Whether that’s what’s actually happening, only they know. However, Breslow seems plenty comfortable taking the position that ownership is far from a barrier to him accomplishing what he wants.