David Ortiz's Hall Induction Throws Red Sox Current Problems Into Stark Relief

It’s difficult to conceive of a bigger study in contrasts, at least when it comes to baseball, then what happened this Sunday. The Red Sox put on another sad showing at home, finishing up their weekend series by getting swept by the Blue Jays. And actually “getting swept” undersells it by a lot. The Jays out-scored the Red Sox 40-10 in the three game series, one in which the Red Sox frequently looked either inept or simply unable to compete with a borderline Wild Card team in Toronto.

At the same time, in Cooperstown, NY, David Ortiz was giving his Hall of Fame acceptance speech. From the podium, Ortiz spoke glowingly of the Red Sox organization both generally and specifically, noting the importance that ownership, management, his teammates, and the fans played in his success. It was an emotional speech, one filled with grace and eloquence. It had depth and strength. It reminded us of all the successes of the Red Sox recent past. It was, in short, everything the current Red Sox are not.

Drawing a comparison between Ortiz’s career in Boston and almost any team in history isn’t going to look good. There are few teams that experience the successes of those Ortiz-lead Red Sox teams, and Ortiz embodied all of that success. Certainly this year’s Red Sox team hasn’t measure up to those standards.

If we’re being fair, it’s not entirely of their own doing either as they’ve been crushed by injuries. April was an unmitigated disaster, but once they got things going, they rolled through May and early June showing everyone how good this squad can be. It was only when 80 percent of their starting rotation went down that things got bad. Now, with Michael Wacha, Rich Hill, Connor Seabold, Chris Sale (again), Enrique Hernandez, Trevor Story, and Rafael Devers all on the IL, it’s a skeleton crew on the field. And they’ve played like it.

This Red Sox team looks like they have a million holes because they do. They’re playing Franchy Cordero regularly out of position. They’re asking Jeter Downs, who has yet to handle Triple-A pitching, to handle Major League pitching on a nightly basis. They’re still hoping for signs of life from Bobby Dalbec, one of the majors worst first baseman, and Jackie Bradley Jr., one of the majors worst hitting right fielders.

The championship Red Sox teams of David Ortiz played like championship teams because they had championship players. This team has a few, but not nearly enough. Trading Mookie Betts was a massive step backwards, and one that, in retrospect, the organization has yet to recover from. Chris Sale hasn’t been healthy in literally years. Xander Bogaerts is fantastic, but limited in his own way. The same could be said for Devers. It’s not that those two aren’t championship caliber - indeed both have been starters for a World Series winning squad - it’s more that they can’t do it alone.

The current roster isn’t a bad one if healthy, but no team can survive the injuries this team has endured. And now a new(ish) problem has stepped forward in the calendar. The trade deadline is August 2nd and with this team seemingly floundering on a nightly basis, the front office must make a decision. The Red Sox have a large number of players set to reach free agency following the 2022 season. Do they trade them all? Do they trade none of them? Do they attempt some sort of half measure and trade a few? Do they trade a few and also add a few? Do they go all in on a roster that seems in free fall?

If you know the answer I’m all ears because this one seems like the reason the front office peeps get paid the big bucks. On one hand, if this was a video game, who cares what anyone thinks, sell it off, get great prospects in return, and rebuild in the off-season. But this isn’t a video game, it’s real life and that kind of thing has repercussions up the wazoo. Regardless of what he does, there will be consequences for Chaim Bloom. The question is whether they come immediately or down the road. Or both.

It’s not that David Ortiz never went through something like this. He was on the roster in 2012 when Bobby Valentine showed us all the importance of picking the right manager by being the wrong manager. Ortiz was on the roster in 2011, 2012, and again in 2014. The thing is he was on the roster in good years and in bad, but he was on the roster. When you find a player like Ortiz you sign him and keep him, through ups and downs. This, among other things, was always the problem with trading Mookie. It’s the problem with not re-signing Xander Bogaerts. It’s the problem with making insulting offers to Devers.

The front office is very smart. They can build this thing back from the ground up. But the thing is they shouldn’t have to. A roster with Mookie, Devers, and Xander is a roster foundation any front office would dream of, and it’s honestly hard to mess up when that’s the starting point. But Mookie is in LA, X is on his way out the door, and Devers might not be far behind him. That kind of exodus will require some real genius to fix.

To me, that’s a huge part of the problem. Not every year goes perfectly. Some seasons the guys you add work out and some seasons they don’t, but if you have Mookie, Xander, and Devers, you’re never far off from a World Series. The days of a roster rock like David Ortiz seem very far away, and with each 8-4 loss they’re getting further still.

The Red Sox are and always have been as much about their past as their present and their future. The juxtaposition of David Ortiz proudly standing on the dais, a living symbol of the Red Sox’ winning past, with the current out-manned squad getting pounded by the Blue Jays again asks more questions than it answers. That’s not what you want, but soon the trade deadline will be here, and the answers we get then might be worse.