The Boston Red Sox have long been one of the more idolized and respected organizations in the MLB. With the high expectation of the Boston fanbase and no salary cap, the Red Sox are supposed to be a team who spends big and is in contention for, at the very least, a division title every season.

 However, John Henry has prioritized his bottom line and other enterprises over his once beloved ball team, leaving the Red Sox to dumpster dive for players and executives. After firing Dave Dombrowski less than two years after the most successful season in team history as President of Baseball Ops, the Red Sox pivoted away from the high spending, win now mindset, in favor of a small market approach of building from within and finding diamonds in the rough. 

Henry picked Chaim Bloom to run his organization. Bloom came from the small Tampa Bay market, who became infamous for finding other team’s failed projects and turning them into viable MLB players. Tampa Bay is forced to do this because they simply don’t have the fans or money to spend big. 

Simply put, Bloom wasn’t seasoned enough or prepared for the high-profile Boston job. He traded away a generational talent in Mookie Betts for an average MLB player in Alex Verdugo, a “prospect” who lasted a year in the farm system, and a backup catcher. He failed to put together a winning roster for three years, resulting in two basement finishes in the AL East. 

After hearing it from the fanbase for the most part of his tenure, the Red Sox moved on from Bloom, surely to hire a big name executive eager to reform the Red Sox momentum. Instead, Henry went with first time executive and analytics-driven thinker Craig Breslow.

 Breslow, a former Red Sox reliever and 2013 World Series Champion, comes from the Chicago Cubs organization where he oversaw an improved pitching group. However, becoming assistant GM in Chicago to President of Baseball Operations in Boston is a huge jump.

 He was chosen largely due to the fact no one wanted the job. Big names like Theo Epsetin, Kim Ng, and Sam Fuld all declined to even interview for the role in Beantown. Once considered to be one of the best jobs in baseball has become an undesirable position not even worth the attention of respected executives in the game. 

John Henry has no one to blame but himself. He has been shown unwilling to competitively spend and has had a quick trigger with his executives and their job security

. Although he is neglecting his baseball team, Henry has not been a lame duck in recent years. He has bought majority ownership in the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and continues to build his brand in international soccer. 

Playing second fiddle doesn’t cut it in Boston, and Red Sox fans have showed their frustration by steadily declining attendance each year of Bloom’s tenure with the team. Expectations from Breslow moving forward shouldn’t be high. In his own words during his opening press conference, “Many people will look at me as another analytical nerd from Harvard. They’re right, I am that.”

 This sentiment isn’t exactly what Red Sox fans should be looking for in the new leader of their team. Yes, he is a former player and champion, but that will only get him so far when he is nose deep in analytics with a roster that is begging for big league ready talent, not prospects who may be good 3-4 years down the line. 

The norm in recent years for the team has been to sign some aging veterans to cheap deals and look for pitching with talent, but little major league success. Sometimes it works out, like with Justin Turner and Jamex Paxton.

 But these are not cornerstone pieces to contending teams and will only take a team so far. This will be a difficult off season for Breslow. Pressure is growing on him to sign big names and restore talent to the roster.

 For a first time president, this is a job easier said than done. Breslow shouldn’t be blamed for this. Any starstruck young executive in the league should capitalize on the opportunity to lead the Red Sox. 

It is John Henry’s fault for ruining his own reputation and the reputation of the team. Although he has soured many fans in recent years, Henry did save this franchise and has overlooked 4 World Series titles this century, the most in the majors.

 He knows what it takes to win in Boston, and maybe he’ll realize that as attendance continues to decline and people don’t buy the $13 beers, but until then, all the criticism that has come his way is completely deserving.