In Theo we Trust
Trying to decide who was to blame for the falling out between the Red Sox and Manny Ramirez is probably what it was like for my parents when my brother, sister and I would argue about doing the dishes. I’ve been accused of being gullible in the past about my analysis of all things Red Sox, but it really appears to be that Manny is primarily to blame for the disintegration of his standing in Boston. In the past, his actions appeared to be harmless (peeing in the green monster, high-fiving a fan, his dreadlocks, staring down home runs) his discretions this year appeared to take it one step further. Getting in to a fight with Kevin Youkilis in the dugout was unnecessary while the incident involving the team’s traveling secretary was reprehensible, indicative of someone who has been treated with kid gloves for too long, his public comments against the team were asking for trouble and his attempts to quit on the team appear to be more real than imagined.
This is not to say that the front office is blameless. Their habit of conducting these affairs in the media is both tired and unprofessional. The Red Sox have done a good job of evaluating their aging talent over the past five years to ensure that they cut players loose before their declines. Decisions made on Johnny Damon, Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra have saved the team millions of dollars and several games in the loss column where the Yankees would have just thrown around some more multi-year contracts (see Posada, Jorge). Through their successes on the field, the front office no longer needs to wage this PR battle every time a popular player is about to leave the team, and yet it is done anyway.
As it is, there is no way that Peter Gammons’ hit piece two days before the deadline was written without the front offices blessing. (A quick side note: the article demonstrates the downside to Gammons’ brilliance as a baseball writer. What makes him great is the love of the game that permeates from the page as you read, but when he writes something negative his emotion comes across as high-minded and preachy.) In addition, the front office is able to rely on the lower levels of the local media to eviscerate Manny’s reputation further to the general public. These hack writers, such as Gerry Callahan and Dan Shaughnessy, are more than happy to oblige as they have never warmed to Manny, primarily because he never played nice with the media, because he’s an easy target, and because he is black. Maybe Manny deserved to have his reputation trashed for essentially quitting on the team, but the front office should be cognizant of the eventual lowbrow form that its PR campaigns take on.
In baseball terms I’m not so sure that this trade is really that big a deal. Of course we got the obligatory stories on the Yankees’ celebrating when Manny was traded, but the Red Sox offense has always been built on its depth as much as it has on the two pillars in the middle. The secondary level of players in the lineup, like Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew, is what has really made the team’s offense stand out over the past five years. Its also worth noting that the Red Sox got an All Star caliber outfielder back for Manny, and just because Jason Bay has wallowed in obscurity for his entire career, does not take away from everything that he brings to the plate. I am also led to believe that his defense and base runner are an upgrade from Manny. While people are up in arms over the fact that the Red Sox had to give up two young players just to get ready of Manny, the fact is that the two players were given up in order to get a player like Jason Bay back in the deal. At the end of the season when Manny walked, there would have been no way that the team could have gotten Bay and his team friendly contract for Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen.
The Red Sox made the best of a bad situation at the trade deadline and if their plethora of underperforming players (Varitek, Ellsbury, Beckett, Okajima and Delcarman) can even come close to their expected levels of production, they will be in the drivers seat for one of the two playoff spots that will come out of the AL East. In Theo We Trust.
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