Boston Red Sox terrible, horrible, no good, very bad offseason
By Drew Athans
Mixed Messages:
As someone who has worked for both small privately owned companies as well as large global corporations, one thing I’ve learned in my career is that inconsistent leadership and mixed messages are death for morale and productivity. It seemed as though the Red Sox had a unified message heading into the offseason with John Henry and the soon-to-be-fired Dave Dombrowksi preaching fiscal restraint and the goal of resetting the tax penalty. The hiring of small-market Chaim Bloom and the numerous minor moves he’s made thus far seemed to corroborate that.
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Imagine the surprise, then, when John Henry went on a bit of a snit (in the newspaper he owns, no less!) by saying that the whole payroll-cutting approach was just “media driven” nonsense and that the plan was always to keep spending and remain competitive. Not only would this seem to be a complete and outright lie given his previous comments mere months before, but it’s a terrible look. He berated the columnist from his own paper who reached out to him (although given that it was Dan Shaughnessy, I’m sure everyone reading sided with Henry on that one) and completely contradicted everything he and the rest of the front office have been saying since last summer.
Beyond making Henry look completely foolish, the worst part of this is that it strips the team (and Bloom, who had nothing to do with Henry’s comments) of their credibility at a time when public perception of the team is at its lowest since the end of the 2011 season (and we all know how incredibly PR-conscious this ownership group has been). As I and others have said for weeks now, it makes the team look directionless and flailing, which as we’re now seeing is exactly what they are. That would seem to be the least of the Red Sox worries at this point, though.