The Boston Red Sox posted their first big market offseason showing in nearly a half decade by trading for Garrett Crochet and signing Walker Buehler and Alex Bregman in 2024-25.
But Red Sox fans haven't — and shouldn't — forget how the team was run in the years leading up to this. Boston traded away franchise players it didn't feel like extending and neglected the top tier of the free agent market for less expensive, lower-quality talent. It showed in the team's record — the Red Sox have made the playoffs just once since they won the World Series in 2018, a stark contrast from the first 15-ish years of John Henry's ownership of the club.
Around 2010, Henry began rapidly expanding his sporting empire, Fenway Sports Group. The company owns or partially owns Liverpool FC of the Premier League, the Pittsburgh Penguins, Roush Racing, MGM Music Hall behind Fenway Park, a billion-dollar stake in the PGA, among many other ventures. The organization also hopes to purchase an NBA expansion team if it ever brings the game to Las Vegas.
All the while, the Red Sox became a profit machine to finance FSG's purchases. Forbes on March 26 published its updated valuations of the 30 MLB clubs and Boston retained its place as the third most valuable team in the league. The valuation also revealed the Red Sox's staggering profit.
Forbes reveals Red Sox organization made a staggering $120 million in profit in 2024, nearly double the second-most profitable team
Forbes estimates that the Red Sox organization profited $120 million in 2024, "based on historical transactions and the future economics of the sport and each team," per the article. To put that number in perspective, the second-most profitable team, the Baltimore Orioles, brought in an estimated $65 million last year, and the New York Yankees operated at approximately a $57 million loss.
The Red Sox consistently have some of the highest ticket prices in MLB, but they spent the last five offseasons (besides 2024-25) looking for cheap additions rather than giving fans a product worth their ticket price. Forbes reports that the Red Sox organization makes approximately $105 in revenue per fan and made $191 million just on ticket sales. Last season and the last few years prior, the organization put very little of that money back into the team, and it started finally seeing the results of its cheapness.
Henry can make so much money off the Red Sox because the fans are so dedicated. Whether the Sox are worth watching or not, the seats at Fenway Park were often filled. Recently, though, Red Sox fans have sold Fenway out less and less, and away fans have taken over the park.
Hopefully, the 2024 season's turnout and the Sox's big offseason before the 2025 slate signify a change from ownership when it comes to spending and treating fans like they're the reason the team has all its money. A consistently mediocre team has no business bringing in nearly double the profit of the next most profitable club, which was a playoff team last season.