BOSTON - In a move that is sure to become a meme or a copypasta going forward in the sports world, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, John Henry, released a statement via the official Boston Red Sox Twitter account. Before we get into the thick of this statement, you can read the message below.
A Statement from #RedSox Principal Owner John Henry: pic.twitter.com/7q60LENAi8
— Red Sox (@RedSox) February 17, 2020
So yeah. A couple of things about that.
First of all, David Price, I am so sorry. He just keeps getting shafted. David Price, you are way more than just a salary dump to me!
Secondly, I want to remark on a couple of positives from this letter. The cynical side of me thinks that this is Henry trying to do damage control from waning sales for the 2020 season of tickets. On the other hand, maybe Henry truly does care about Mookie. After all, I’m glad he wrote glowingly about Mookie instead of trying to put a hit piece out on him. Similarly, he is right about players’ rights. They’ve changed a lot from the days of Ted Williams to Mookie Betts.
But to compare Mookie to Nomar is just not the same. They were both homegrown talents, but Nomar was not the same player Mookie is. Nomar was also on the downtrend of his career and he had a great many injuries. Mookie is in his prime!
Likewise, I understand that Henry needed to get a return on Mookie, rather than allow him to walk in free agency. But it still feels like he settled for peanuts in return for Betts. Just admit that you didn’t want to pay him! Stop trying to justify this as anything but a penny-pinching act.
It is a very conflicted state of feelings I have right now. On the one hand, Henry and his ownership group have exceeded my wildest expectations about this team. One championship (back in 2004) would have been enough. But then, they built a team that won in 2007, 2013, and 2018. They have been loyal to players like Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz. They have given me so much to be happy about for my favorite sports team in the world. But I just can’t get past this Mookie Betts decision. Betts deserved every penny and I was looking forward to watching him every summer for the rest of his career. I’m going to miss him very much and I wish Henry would stop trying to justify this decision beyond the fact that he wanted to save money. That’s really what it comes down to.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
