Sam Kennedy & The Red Sox Have To Live Up To Their Promises

And there have been plenty of them recently.

Talking with The Boston Globe recently, Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy said things that fans have been absolutely longing to hear: That they’re in the hunt for a legitimate superstar in Juan Soto and taking the meetings not just seriously, but getting positive feedback after the fact. He definitively stated that they’ll be willing to spend over the Competitive Balance Tax to win, and that they want at least 90-95 wins a season. They want AL East Titles, they want the comfort of not worrying about a Wild Card position. They want to win a World Series hopefully in the next four years.

But these are all just silly words until pen is put to paper and a Brinks truck is backed up to prove that they actually mean what they say.

We’re somehow more than a full calendar year out already from the infamous “Full Throttle” meme being spoken into existence. With the free agents on the market last winter, full throttle induced (and maybe deluded) many Red Sox fans into thinking the team would not just spend, but spend competitively. In the end, nothing of substance really happened. No Blake Snell, the 2023 Cy Young winner who went on to have a great enough season in San Francisco to opt out of his deal and try again this winter. No Yoshinobu Yamamoto, though his path to the Dodgers was obvious after their signing of Shohei Ohtani.

It’s not like Breslow did nothing. He sent Alex Verdugo packing to New York, where his strikeout to seal the Dodgers’ World Series title will serve as schadenfreude on Landsdowne Street for years. He brought in Tyler O’Neill, who had a much better season than Adam Duvall. He brought in Lucas Giolito, who promptly pitched 0.0 innings in the regular season after damaging his UCL and needing an internal brace put in. He sent Chris Sale to Atlanta, which at the time seemed great, right? A 2024 Cy Young says otherwise to a Sox rotation who desperately could have used his skillset.

But none of these moves represented full throttle and we all know it. Fitzy wrote an incredible piece last season about the high horse and hypocrisy Tom Werner threw in our faces at Winter Weekend. Every platitude since has been memefied on the Green Monster, as a slap in the face to the fans.

Howard Bryant put things so eloquently not even 10 minutes into The Comeback. Before FSG took over, he said, “There was a feeling that the Red Sox lacked a killer instinct. They didn’t have the killer instinct to acquire players that they needed. They didn’t do the things you have to do to be a champion.” When John Henry and co. came in, that changed, Howard opined. “What we were, we will never be again.”

I couldn’t help but think of this epic quote that seems all too fitting.

You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Has FSG become the villain? Four World Series titles and a curse reversed have now been tarnished by inconstancies and a hesitancy to spend and compete in one of the most historic and competitive baseball markets in the country. The highest of highs brought down by last place finishes, the chicken and beer scandal, firing Tito, the Alex Cora Part 1 saga post World Series. Six years of mediocrity 2021 was very fun, but it was a Cinderella story, not the norm.

Now Sam Kennedy has spoken, and his words are actual barometers to live up to. Not a trite remark or a cliché, not a blanket statement saying they’ll do what it takes, not a full throttle. He put numbers, timelines, thresholds out there. They’re all things we’ve wanted to hear for YEARS now. This offseason, it’s not just Juan Soto. We’ve heard the whispers they’ve talked to Blake Snell, Max Fried, Alex Bregman and Corbin Burnes.

They’re still just words until something is done. So do something, Sam. Convince John Henry and Tom Werner to spend. Push Craig Breslow to make the risky move. Show us you’re interested in more than just building condos and theater space around the ballpark. Show us that you actually want to build not just a competitive team, but a winning team for years to come.

If Kennedy can’t do that, then this ownership group will not earn back the trust and confidence of the fans. They’ll have to remember what Harvey Dent said, and find someone else to do the work that this city deserves.