Despite having one of the worst seasons in franchise history by many metrics, the Red Sox front office has remained adamant that it wasn’t ready to give up on the season.
Sam Kennedy told WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show that the team was looking to add a bat “earlier than ever.” ESPN’s Buster Olney later told Rich and Ken with Ted Johnson that ownership was getting involved in the team’s pursuit of offensive help.
That sense of desperation has been evident since April, when the Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora and half of the coaching staff. Since then, they are 19-24. Those 19 wins are tied for the third-fewest in the American League during that span, ahead of only the Detroit Tigers (16) and the Los Angeles Angels (17), both bottom feeders in the AL.
But when Kennedy appeared on The Greg Hill Show again last Thursday, just three weeks after discussing the team’s efforts to add a bat, there was the first indication that the Red Sox may finally be coming to terms with where they are.
“With the passage of time, yeah, you have to sort of take an honest assessment and look and see sort of where you are,” Kennedy said. “At the current moment, there are a lot of discussions going on in terms of improvement and how we get this thing back on track, looking at every single area of the roster and player personnel, and Bres and his team are doing that. But look, let’s be honest, unless things change dramatically, we may have to pivot here from what our initial planning was. It just, it wouldn’t be responsible to do otherwise. But here in mid-June, we need to see what happens over the next couple of weeks, and then we’ll reassess.”
That pivot may have to come sooner rather than later.
Tuesday night’s loss served as the latest humbling reminder.
The loudest cheers from the crowd of 32,392 on hand at Fenway Park came from the Scots, who are still in town for the World Cup as they await their next match against Morocco on Friday night at Gillette Stadium, Boston Stadium.
Their chants of “No Scotland, no party” bellowed throughout an otherwise quiet ballpark as the Red Sox narrowly avoided a shutout thanks to an eighth-inning Jarren Duran solo home run in a 6-1 loss.
In some ways, those words — “No Scotland, no party” — do ring true.
The Tartan Army takeover on Sunday was one of the few memorable moments at Fenway Park — or really, around this team — all season.
With Tuesday night’s loss, the Red Sox dropped to 29-41 on the season, tied for the second-fewest wins in baseball behind only the Colorado Rockies (28). They are now 12-23 (.343) at home this season, the worst home record in Major League Baseball, and will look to avoid falling to 2-9-1 in home series play on Wednesday night.
Against AL East opponents, they are 6-15 and currently riding a five-game losing streak, just one year after finishing the divisional slate with a 32-20 record, the club’s best mark within the division since 2018 (52-24).
They are 6.0 games back of a Wild Card spot, with five teams ahead of them competing for the three available spots.
So good. So good. So good.
It’s been a tough watch.
The Red Sox offense, which entered Tuesday ranked 29th in runs scored and tied for dead last in home runs, was outscored or matched by five of the six World Cup teams that played Tuesday night. Expecting one of the worst offenses in baseball to suddenly turn things around over the next 40 games before the Aug. 3 trade deadline wouldn’t exactly qualify as an “honest assessment.”
As much as the Red Sox want to hold out hope, the reality of their situation is becoming impossible to ignore.
They need to be sellers.
