The 2020 Red Sox spring training has been undeniably chaotic in its own way.
But let's not forget perhaps the most beginning-to-end season of craziness: Bobby Valentine's 2012 club.
And in case you had forgotten the dynamic that came with Valentine's one-and-only season with the Red Sox, the former manager surfaced some of it recently on his "Ask Bobby V" podcast.
When comparing the situation facing current Mets manager Luis Rojas and his own situation with the Red Sox, Valentine didn't hold back when discussing his former coaches.
"I got to Boston, it was a real weird thing, I only got three of my coaches I got to hire. It was the same time frame," said Valentine of the Rojas hiring. "It was late in the winter. I inherited three coaches and I hired three coaches and the three I inherited, well, two of the three I inherited, were absolute idiots. They worked to try to make me look bad rather than to try and make me look good. I hope that is not the case here with the Mets."
It was no secret Valentine's issues with some of his coaches with the Red Sox, barely communicating with bench coach Tim Bogar for the final few months of the season while also parting ways with pitching coach Bob McClure in late August. Bullpen coach/catching instructor Gary Tuck was a holdover from Terry Francona's staff, with Jerry Royster (third base coach) and Alex Ochoa (first base coach) having been brought in as newcomers heading into 2012.
Valentine had also used his final weekly interview on WEEI on the final day of the 2012 season to send his first public salvo toward some of his coaches answering "yes" to the question of if he felt some of his staff undermined him.
On the podcast, he also made note of how his preseason visits to some Red Sox players (which included a stop to David Ortiz's celebrity golf tournament one day after the manager's introductory press conference) was a futile exercise.
"It makes it more difficult because there is no time," said Valentine when talking about the timeline Rojas faces with the Mets. "I had a different situation because I didn’t know the players. At least Luis knows the players. I was flying around the country, actually around the world, meeting with players before spring training which was kind of a waste of time. I did that anyway. And then tried to spend a lot of time, or as much time as possible, with the coaches, but a few of them had more important things to do and I didn’t have a hammer so they just what they had to do or thought they should be doing."