The Boston Red Sox have dealt with their fair share of drama this season. In addition to the usual roster speculation and disagreements that plague every team, the Red Sox had to deal with the Rafael Devers drama and subsequent trade fallout.
Though the Devers stuff was mostly an unforced error, and included miscommunications on both sides, the Red Sox now find themselves loosely connected to the unfolding investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the LA Clippers' alleged attempt to circumvent the NBA salary cap.
On Wednesday, news broke from investigative reporter/podcaster Pablo Torre that there are documents that seem to show (at least to the untrained eye) that Leonard was owed over $7 million per year by a now-bankrupt and possibly fraudulent tree-planting company called Aspiration. Many are currently arguing that Leonard had a "no-show job" never actually earned that money.
That investigation and reporting is ongoing and doesn't really matter to Boston fans. However, what could end up mattering a lot is the creditor in those same bankruptcy documents ranked directly below the company alleged to be connected to Leonard: the Boston Red Sox.
Our full episode, btw, is a full-length documentary about how two Democratic politicians from Harvard are behind a $2.3B scheme centered around climate change.
— Pablo Torre 🕳️ (@PabloTorre) September 3, 2025
They had a key donor: the richest owner in sports.
They hired Drake, Leo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr...
And, secretly: https://t.co/Id6K9z10FS
It is early, but it looks like the Red Sox were either duped (or worse) in an attempt to gain environmental praise
There are some important caveats here. We have no idea why the Red Sox are owed almost $5 million by a defunct tree-planting company nor do we have any reason to believe that Boston did anything wrong here. One also needs to take any reporting that relies on input from one of the more controversial executives MLB has seen in former Marlins general manager David Sampson with a grain of salt.
However, a look at the longer cut of Torre's podcast shows that the Red Sox partnered with the company in an attempt to earn the label of being MLB's first carbon neutral team. Paying a decent bit of money would plant some trees and get the team some much-needed good press at minimum (more on that in a minute). The question now is whether or not Boston knew the company was fraudulent when they were dealing with them.
That is where things get sticky and we will need a lot more information before actual answers reveal themselves. It is incredibly likely that the Red Sox just wanted that environmentally-friendly label for PR and possibly tax write-off purposes, and then just got duped by a shady company that seems to have screwed over a lot of people.
However, if Boston knew that the company was disingenuous when they were dealing with them and either didn't care because they were benefitting or that money they paid went back out the door, hypothetically, like Leonard's money did, this could get very, very ugly.