Boston Fails At Deadline
Manny Ramirez created a bad situation in Boston. He forced the Sox hand, leading to what can only be described as a bad deal. But one overlooked part of the drama that carried on all week culminating in Ramirez heading to LA yesterday was how it prevented Boston from addressing any of its other needs.
Put Ramirez aside, Theo Epstein needed to acquire bullpen help leading into Papelbon, and another bat in a lineup with up to three easy outs on many nights – Crisp, Varitek, Ellsbury. Boston not only had a chance to win this season, before yesterday I put them as favorites in the AL East, second only to an Anaheim team they own in October in the American League. And they have the mound version of Mr. October, Josh Beckett.
Forget the argument that they already won twice in the past four years, its still difficult to win championships, and opportunities are far and few between. Teams in position need to go for it. Boston failed to do it. Call it arrogance, call it strategic management, call it what you want, they have an opportunity to win back-to-back titles and did nothing to improve their team, unless you argue the Manny move was addition by subtraction. The rest of the AL won’t buy that.
About the trade, Theo Epstein was backed into a corner. His outcome shows the lack of leverage he had, forced to give up Manny, cash, and a big prospect in Brandon Moss to get Jason Bay. Bay’s 2008 numbers are comparable to Manny, but he’s not Manny. Never is, never will be. As the saying goes, his next big game will be his first. More importantly, he’s not the perceived threat of Manny Ramirez, which puts more pressure on David Ortiz who no longer has cushy protection.
The clubhouse may be a better place, the team is not though. Epstein let this go on for too long. Boston was naive if they didn’t foresee this disintegration coming. He lost all his leverage waiting until the last minute, giving Manny more time to make the situation worse. Essentially the Sox paid off another team to take him, almost worse than releasing him, except they received a reputable player to replace him – not a superstar, not proven in a big spot yet.
Compounding the Boston debacle were the Yankees moves. Brian Cashman addressed every need on the team outside of the back of the starting rotation. Does this mean the Yanks will take the division? No way. It’s baseball, anything can happen. Tampa is still in it, in fact they are the front runners, and Boston’s not chopped liver. New York just put itself in better position. COme late September, they can say to themselves and their fans that they laid it all out on the table. Boston and Tampa can’t.
