John Henry stressed that the Red Sox had other options to get under the CBT than trading BettsGETTY IMAGES
Red Sox Owner John Henry said that getting the team's payroll under the competitive balance tax threshold was "not a leading factor" in trading RF Mookie Betts and P David Price to the Dodgers, according to Michael Silverman of the BOSTON GLOBE. Henry: "We had other avenues for getting under the CBT." He said that the "economic system that rules [MLB] forced" the Red Sox to "consider trading a player of Betts’ caliber with a year of team control remaining." He said, "When I was growing up, you didn't have great players leaving their teams. We had a different economic system that did not work at all for the players. Over decades now, bargained between players and clubs, there's a system that we now live under that I think makes a lot more sense. But, you end up having to make difficult decisions as a result of the system. It's a continual thing for clubs and players." Meanwhile, Red Sox President & CEO Sam Kennedy insisted that the trade involved "working with the economic system and still fielding a team that could be competitive in the near and long term." He said, "We have to be honest about why we made the decision to do what we did, and that's clear. We think it's in the best interests of baseball operations" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/17).
TOUGH SELL: The GLOBE's Silverman writes, "How will the Red Sox market sell and woo back an angry and skeptical fan base to a Mookie-less team?" Other than Betts' and Price's images being "scrubbed from the Red Sox website's ticketing ads, the details of a marketing plan are still fuzzy." The day after Betts was traded, Kennedy said that overall ticket sales were "behind last year's pace" by more than 15%, and that the "renewal rate of season-ticket holders was down from the usual percentage" in the 80s. The Red Sox will have "plenty of promotional items, theme nights, and activities for fans, but the club will not deviate from focusing its promotional efforts on its players." Fans should be ready to see "plenty of ads featuring young talents" like SS Xander Bogaerts and 3B Rafael Devers, as well as other players such as DH J.D. Martinez, CF Jackie Bradley Jr. and P Chris Sale (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/17).
DIMINISHING RETURNS: In Boston, Sean McAdam noted the crowd sizes at the Red Sox' first week of Spring Training "should alarm the organization greatly," even allowing for the "fact that last week didn't coincide with school vacation week" in New England. As recently as 10 years ago, Red Sox Spring Training would "attract thousands and thousands of people daily." But last week, the "number of interested onlookers was in the hundreds, many of them senior citizens and many of them local." The dip in interest "mirrors the diminishing support for the game nationally." McAdam: "'Disinterest' should concern the Red Sox greatly" (BOSTONSPORTSJOURNAL.com, 2/15).
