The former Boston Red Sox ace recently spoke about his time at Fenway Park and was quite honest about his tenure with the organization.
We’re now a week removed from the blockbuster trade between the Red Sox and Dodgers becoming official. In that time Sox Nation has gotten to learn a bit about the new faces that made their way to Fenway while Mookie Betts and David Price adorned Dodger blue. We haven’t heard much from either side beyond mere sound bytes, until this week.
Price spoke with Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe and the pair covered a vast array of topics spanning the southpaw’s tenure with the Red Sox. From the get-go, the lefty never had much of a relationship with the often critical Boston media. The nature of the media in relation to the sports figures in Boston was something that wasn’t lost on the ace.
After all, he was coming off of stints in Tampa, Toronto, and Detroit, not the most competitive sports markets in recent times. Now the southpaw was in Boston where championships had been showing up like presents on Christmas morning. With the feeding frenzy around his signing in full force, Price was now another fish in the sea.
"“In Boston, they’re all competing against each other,” he said. “There’s a bunch of different big papers. They’re all trying to get the big story. I get that.”"
At the time of his signing, many were critical of Dave Dombrowski for offering the richest contract in Red Sox history to a pitcher, myself included. His seven-year, $217 million deal was off the charts at the time and is still being felt to his day. The fact that he was still owed $96M over the next three years heading into 2020 was a chief reason why the Red Sox wanted to move him this winter.
With the CBT looming over Chaim Bloom’s head like a guillotine ready to drop, he had to make something happen to appease his bosses, despite their lack of admittance to shedding payroll. Trading Price always felt like the goal this winter, and the Red Sox were successful, just not how we would’ve liked. He became a throw-in piece in the deal that sent Mookie Betts to Los Angeles and allowed Boston to achieve their goal.
Dombrowski had previous experience with Price thanks to their shared time in Detroit and most likely could’ve signed the starter for less, considering the offer was well above anything else on the table. It was hard to think that Price went to Boston for anything other than the money, but he says it wasn’t the main factor.
"“I went there to win,” Price said. “To me, that is the reason why I went to Boston. I wanted to be able to win right now. I wanted to be able to win the year after and the year after that. That was something I wanted to be a part of. I was comfortable in the American League and even more so in the American League East."
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He wasn’t wrong about the winning, things have been pretty damn good at Fenway Park as of late, 2019 being omitted. While Price has been on the roster Boston has been able to win three division championships as well as the 2018 World Series. The lefty was a major component in that championship title as he won the clinching games in both the ALCS and World Series.
It never felt like Price was a good fit in Boston, whether that will ever truly be figured out or not. On the field, he was one of the best to do the job, but off of it, it seemed like a square peg in a round hole. There were his well-known dust-ups with Red Sox legend Dennis Eckersley as well as now Athletic reporter Evan Drellich.
When asked about those interactions Price was pretty clear that he could’ve done better and been better while in Boston. As any human will admit, it’s never easy to admit you’re wrong and that you didn’t live up to your best. I for one can say that it’s not always easy for me when I messed up, we’re all human. Though he’s a baseball superstar and will most likely see his bust in Cooperstown one day, that idea isn’t beyond Price.
"“I could have made a bunch of better decisions,” Price said. “But that’s life. You make bad decisions, you make poor choices. You live with the consequences. Whether people could forgive you and move past that, that’s one thing. I’m human. I make mistakes.”"
The Red Sox are in a transitional period as they stray away from their big-money ways to a new more frugal ballclub. Granted that’s weird to say when the team is worth $6.6B, but their horrible past spending is what got them in this mess, Price’s contact was a big factor in that. Sometimes it just isn’t the right fit between a player, sometimes relationships have to end, that’s just a part of life.