Boston Red Sox owner John Henry, left, listens as chairman Tom Werner speaks during a news conference at Fenway Park on Wednesday. Associated Press Photo/Elise Amendola
BOSTON — Guess what, Red Sox fans?
They want something from you.
Amid one of the most jarring scandals to ever hit the franchise, the team’s top executives sat down in front of cameras on Wednesday and admitted to nothing. They did not apologize. They put everything on Alex Cora, quickly announced that Cora admitted to wrongdoings and then grabbed a broom and tried to sweep everything under the rug.
Their request from you?
“We would ask that everyone reserve judgment until MLB completes its investigation, and determines whether rules were violated,” principal owner John Henry said in an opening statement at Fenway Park.
There was nothing humble about the 45 minutes these guys tiptoed around questions and remained stoic about the franchise’s success in 2018.
Their excuse? MLB is still investigating the 2018 Red Sox, and they would not answer any questions about the investigation until it was complete.
While that makes sense, why didn’t the Red Sox withhold judgment before they fired Cora?
“It’s important to recognize that this collective decision (Tuesday) was related exclusively to the incidents that took place in Houston,” said president Sam Kennedy. “The other thing I’d add is the organization is well aware of the rules and communicated those to our uniformed personnel and front office staff, but that’s as far as we’ll go in terms of talking about anything related to Boston.”
So letting go of Cora had nothing to do with what he might’ve done wrong as the manager of the Red Sox, they’re saying. Kennedy went one step further in the blame game, noting that ownership clearly warned the field staff and front office about cheating as it relates to stealing signs.
Henry did too, claiming that “we did take steps after the 2017 Apple Watch incident. We took a number of steps to insure that we didn’t have a problem moving forward. … I know it is asking a lot, but I think it makes a lot of sense at this point to wait until the report comes out to be able to address any of these issues.”
What do they know that we don’t about the 2018 investigation?
MLB took two months to investigate the Astros. They’ve only spent one week investigating the Red Sox, but Henry and Co. seemed quite certain on Wednesday that the investigation wouldn’t be so bad for the Red Sox.
Wait for the results, they kept saying.
The Red Sox better hope they’re exonerated in the commissioner’s report on them, or their words are going to look remarkably silly.
Meanwhile, chairman Tom Werner was quick to announce that Cora pled guilty for his crimes in 2017 during his meeting with the team on Tuesday.
“Alex, by his own admission, and we agreed, played a central role in what went on in Houston,” Werner said. “And we all agreed that it was wrong and that we had a responsibility as stewards, as John has said, to have a standard here where that sort of behavior is not acceptable.”
It should be unacceptable.
But it’s awfully convenient for the Red Sox to point all fingers toward Cora, then plead with the fans that they reserve judgment until whenever MLB decides to release its report.
As for any accountability the Red Sox have taken for 2018, here’s the money quote from Wednesday: Asked if they thought the Red Sox won the 2018 World Series “fair and square,” both Henry and Kennedy responded immediately,
“Absolutely, yes.”
What about the 2018 regular season, when the Sox won 108 games and have been accused of using the replay video room to decode signals and send them to their batters? Was that fair and square, too?
“Yes,” Kennedy said.
Even the Astros, who run perhaps the shadiest operation in the league, one that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred determined had a serious culture problem, handled their cheating scandal with more humility. Their owner, Jim Crane, admitted the Astros were wrong, apologized to the fans and said “I will not have this happen again on my watch.”
The Red Sox seemed quite sure that they were different.
Over and over they talked about how much confidence they have in their current coaching staff and everybody in their organization.
Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, who has inherited a mess of a franchise, went as far as to say he would consider all his current coaches to be the next manager of the Red Sox, despite the fact that somebody on the current staff could still be implicated in MLB’s investigation into the 2018 squad.
“I fully expect we’re going to consider internal options as well,” Bloom said. “We have a lot of regard for our coaches. It’s an impressive group. No reason to think none of them would deserve consideration for this.”
Bloom continued, “I don’t like to think of any of the staff as ‘his guys,'” Bloom said. “They’re members of the Red Sox family.”
Cora was once a member of the Red Sox family, too.
Just be sure to reserve judgment on the rest of them.
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