The Red Sox Are Having A Terrible Off-Season And Fans Are Pissed

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The Red Sox have signed one free agent all off-season. He's a man named Cooper Criswell who has pitched in a total of 12 Major League games. He was signed to a 1 year/$1 million dollar contract. Exciting news I'm sure for the Criswell family but for the Red Sox fan base, this is not the expectation on December 27th.

In their "defense", they have made two trades since the season ended. They traded for Tyler O'Neill and traded away Alex Verdugo. O'Neill had one great season in 2021 and otherwise has been kind of lousy. Verdugo seems like a clubhouse cancer but was a steady yet not impressive bat for them last season. I think you can be kind and call these transactions close to a push.

That's it. That's how the Red Sox have improved this team with 93 days until Opening Day. 

And fans are fucking pissed.

Zolak was not wrong.

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There's a tons more just like that. Fans have every right to be disappointed with the lack of urgency after two last place finishes. I know some Sox fans will point out that going 78-84 shouldn't land you in last place. That's fair but it also shows how competitive you need to be in the AL East if it does indeed get you a 5th place finish each of the past two years.

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This is a franchise that used to go out and get top players in the off-season. It wasn't just superstars like Manny Ramirez and Curt Schilling. They'd make major moves at the next tier too for guys like Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Lowell and JD Drew. Not every move worked like Matt Clement or Carl Crawford but they were always trying.

How bad is 78-84 for the Red Sox? People like to make fun of the Dan Duquette Era but he only had a losing season ONCE from 1995-01 (going…78-84 in 1997). Here's how often the Red Sox have lost 84 games or more in a season since 1967:

78-84 (1983)

78-84 (1987)

73-89 (1992)

78-84 (1997)

69-93 (2012)

71-91 (2014)

78-84 (2015)

78-84 (2022)

78-84 (2023)

That's over a span of 57 years. They've done it more in the last 12 seasons than the 45 before it. That's on John Henry. He either stopped caring about the team, lost the ability to be a good owner or both. His successes are legendary in Boston. Winning four World Series is an outstanding run. But he has also run the team into mediocrity.

I am sure they will make more moves before Spring Training. The roster demands it. There are holes to fill just to get back to 78-84. Also, this has been a slow offseason due to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto holding up the market. But let's look at the situation facing the Sox.

The Yankees already went out and got Juan Soto. They even traded for Alex Cora's best friend Alex Verdugo. The Blue Jays always underperform but already have a roster miles ahead of the Red Sox. The Orioles won 100 games last year with Jackson Holliday waiting in the wings. The Rays have gotten worse by trading Glasnow and all of the pitching injuries from last year but is fighting for 4th place the goal for the BOSTON RED SOX?

New Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has his work cut out for him. This is bland, boring roster with a terrible starting rotation. John Henry seems more focused on his soccer team and making documentaries about Boston than fixing the team that resides there. Henry is also too cowardly for a true rebuild so they will continue to talk about competing with no actual effort to do so.

Sell the team already. If you don't give a fuck, I can promise that other people would.