The Winter Weekend has barely begun and yet the news is flowing freely. Today the Red Sox ownership made it clear that winning was more important than the Luxury Tax penalty.
The Red Sox are more than flirting with the highest tier of the Luxury Tax penalty, they’re practically at third base by this point. An early estimation has the Red Sox at $238.8M, just $7.2M below the $246M threshold. It seemed as if this entire offseason that Boston was trying o keep themselves from exceeding that limit, yesterday seemed to shed some new light on that.
On Friday, Principal Owner John Henry made it a point to acknowledge the Luxury Tax and move past it. This entire offseason Red Sox Nation has been told that the organization had zero desire to burn salary on big contracts like that of Craig Kimbrel. With Henry making it clear that FSG (Fenway Sports Group) isn’t worried about the penalty, what’s the wait?
"“How important is it? It’s obviously not that important,” Henry said here at Red Sox Winter Weekend at Foxwoods Resort Casino."
With a bullpen that could use some serious help, the spending has been pretty conservative. Yes, Dave Dombrowski reached agreements with all of the arbitration-eligible players and re-signed free agents Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce, but what next? The bullpen still could use some firepower and there isn’t a definitive closer.
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Henry did make it clear that the budget was still where the Sox wanted it and even though they exceeded 2018’s budget, a World Series title will ease that pain. Red Sox chairman Tom Werner also made it clear that the ownership group is eyeing the threshold but ultimately it is up to Dombrowski. The ownership team won’t stand in the way of the President of Baseball Operations.
"Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said, “In the end, It’s up to Dave and Alex and baseball ops to field a team that is good from the top of the rotation to the bullpen. But it’s our intention to be strong in all facets.”"
It’s clear that the main objective of the entire organization is to win at whatever cost. They have what feels like little to no worries about exceeding the Luxury Tax threshold as long as the reward is another piece of silverware. The city of Boston has become very comfortable with winning in recent history and the Luxury tax sure won’t stop the fans from wanting some more trophies.
Dave Dombrowski obviously won’t just go and back the Brinks truck up to each and every free agent that’s still on the market. But it feels as if he does have a little more leeway than what we were originally led to believe. So with ownership seemingly more than OK with exceeding the threshold, what’s the holdup on signing Kimbrel?
Yeah, he wants a ridiculous contract in both a matter of both years and dollars, but there is wiggle room. There just doesn’t seem to be a market out there for what Kimbrel is asking for. But if Dombrowski is being given this breathing room and green light to spend, why not do it? Sit down with Kimbrel and come up with a deal that is win-win for both parties and get it done.
At this point, the Red Sox will more than likely exceed the highest Luxury Tax threshold. But with ownership prepared to do so as long as it reaps the rewards of another championship, why wait? The bullpen needs help and needs it ASAP with Spring Training right around the corner. Fix the gaps in the lineup and get the squad ready to defend the crown in 2019.