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After Red Sox' Slow Start, Henry Defends Cherington, Farrell, Accepts Culpability

Red Sox Owner John Henry yesterday during an informal news conference at Fenway Park made "unequivocally clear" that team GM Ben Cherington and manager John Farrell "will not pay with their jobs" despite the team's AL East-worst 23-29 record to start the season, according to Peter Abraham of the BOSTON GLOBE. The Red Sox are 260-278 since Cherington became GM before the '12 season and have made the playoffs once since '10. Henry: "I’m here to be accountable and tell you how I see it. ...  How painful has it been to watch these games? I watch these games, so I know how painful they are. We talk about television, it’s terrible television. But it’s even worse to be responsible for this and I feel responsible. I am responsible. ... The general manager is going to be the general manager of this club for a very long time. I have nothing but respect for him and for the job that he does. I think we’ve been on the same wavelength. You have to blame ownership as much as you can blame the general manager." The offseason signings of LF Hanley Ramirez (four years, $88M) and 3B Pablo Sandoval (five years, $95M) "have backfired badly." Henry said of this notion, "Did we spend too much on offense and not enough on pitching? With hindsight you could perhaps say that. But we don’t have enough offense" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/3). ESPN BOSTON's Gordon Edes noted the Red Sox entered the season with a $177M payroll, "the highest in team history." The team spent the $183M on Ramirez and Sandoval "to bolster their offense, and also retooled the starting rotation, trading for Wade Miley, Joe Kelly and Rick Porcello, and signing Justin Masterson as a free agent." They invested $72.5M in Cuban OF Rusney Castillo as well. Henry said of whether this was money well spent, "At this point, you can question that" (ESPNBOSTON.com, 6/2).

HEN HOUSE: In Boston, Scott Lauber writes more than ever, it "seems the Red Sox don’t know what the right way is." Henry: "The way you win games in 2003 is different from the way you win games in 2015. And we have to make those adjustments as an organization. We have a certain philosophy. We’ve talked a lot about adjusting that philosophy. I’m not sure it’s just the players that need to make adjustments. In fact, I’m sure about that. There are adjustments we need to make as an organization." Lauber writes while the Red Sox "were wildly successful at exploiting market inefficiencies and defining a winning philosophy during the first decade of Henry’s tenure, ownership and the front office have come off like blind men feeling around for answers in the past three or four years" (BOSTON HERALD, 6/3). The BOSTON GLOBE's Christopher Gasper writes Red Sox execs have now put Farrell "in the crosshairs." But Gasper adds of Farrell, "This is not his mess." Rather, it is "one created" by Cherington, who "constructed this flawed team, and by a philosophy, espoused by ... Henry, that emphasizes the age of a pitcher over his track record or talent level" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/3). In Boston, Dan Shaughnessy writes, "Despite the hype, the highest prices in baseball, and the $200 million payroll, the Sox are no longer legitimate contenders." Many of the franchise's "current problems are still rooted in arrogance" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/3).

WHERE'S LARRY?
In Boston, Nick Cafardo cites execs as saying that Red Sox President & CEO Larry Lucchino now "is in a diminished role with the Red Sox and soon to be devoting most of his time" to the Triple-A Int'l League Pawtucket Red Sox' ballpark project. Lucchino "bought a major stake in the Pawtucket Red Sox but was going to stay in the background until principal owner James Skeffington died suddenly May 17." Lucchino "is spending a lot of time in Providence trying to gain public favor on the stadium project" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/31). The GLOBE's Shaughnessy wrote, "Who is running the Red Sox? I’d feel better about the team’s ability to salvage this season if Larry Lucchino was kicking butts and taking names on Yawkey Way. Instead, we have Lucchino assuming a role with Boston 2024 and working to get a minor league ballpark built in Providence." Shaughnessy noted Lucchino last Wednesday "canceled his weekly appearance" on WEEI-FM’s "Dennis and Callahan." Shaughnessy: "Hmmm" (BOSTON GLOBE, 5/28).

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