FORT MYERS, Fla. - There are some things you can count on every spring training. One of them is the "let's go get them" speech delivered by the team's higher-ups once all the players are assembled for Day 1.
Monday, that was the case for the Red Sox.
Alex Cora's message was to simply not look at any semblance of the past and just worry about what is right in front of these Red Sox. Sam Kennedy got up and made sure the group knew ownership was there for its every need. And a longtime member of the Red Sox PR staff - Pam Kenn - offered some insight into the way of the world when it comes to living this life in this organization.
All of that was the norm. Everything else? Well, welcome to a new world.
On this day, one of the out-of-the-ordinaries was putting the once-a-year sit-down with ownership in the rearview mirror. All those consecutive years of at least having that one day with John Henry answering questions now seem to be a thing of the past. In its place was the opportunity for some select outlets to submit email questions which the principal owner would have the option of responding to.
No more "We screwed up the Jon Lester deal" or surmising Pablo Sandoval's body fat is hovering at 17 percent. Those days appear to be gone. Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted.
Appearing on WEEI later in the day, Kennedy said fans really didn't care all that much about hearing from the likes of Henry when so many other elements of the team are in question. The problem with that, of course, is that even if that was the case there is a box that needs to be checked off in this world of Boston sports that when a team finishes last, the top of the food chain is called upon to address that group's lot in life.
Henry sort of did that at Winter Weekend, but after getting the reaction in that setting the guess is this 73-year-old simply has no time for such aggravation these days. We can scream from the mountaintops that this isn't the way things should be done - pointing to the Mets' Steve Cohen all the while - but it doesn't matter. Henry will continue to point to payroll and behind-the-scenes personal investment in all involved.
Would it be easier and more effective just to sit on that bench for 20 minutes every year? Yes. Is it going to happen? No. So be it. This is the reality of this version of the Red Sox.
Speaking of which ...
After Kennedy's appearance on WEEI, Bloom called into the Bradfo Sho to explain his view of things. It is, after all, a view that has come under much scrutiny.
When it comes to this version of the Red Sox - the one that finished in last and is picked by many to find themselves in the same place at the conclusion of 2023 - things are very different. And John Henry not sitting on a bench is a very small piece of that unfamiliar puzzle.
Here is your bumpersticker: "The 2023 Red Sox: Maybe?!"
Walk into the clubhouse these days and you are immediately struck with the lack of marquee players or big-contract storylines. Whether or not that matters remains to be seen, but it is ... different. Certainly a change from any other group the Henry ownership posse has oversaw.
"We did want to focus on having the pieces fit together that at time they did last season ... There were some pieces were a little forced (in 2022) at the outset," Bloom said on the Bradfo Sho, pointing out there are more guys left over from 2018 (3) than there were from 2013 to 2018.
But what is striking is how different these pieces appear when trying to put the proper picture together. Different, and unfamiliar. And when you have those two things that doesn't exactly lead to no-questions-asked fan investment.
Things change. Sometimes more than most are comfortable with. That was the reminder offered in a way we certainly aren't used to Monday morning.
