Red Sox Ownership Blames Craig Breslow For Lack Of Spending This Winter
When the Boston Red Sox fired former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and promised brighter days ahead the media and fanbase alike were excited for their big-market team to flex their financial power.
Instead, they have run Craig Breslow into a buzzsaw. Red Sox chairman Tom Werner particularly continues to make things harder than it needs to be for the first-time leader of baseball operations.
Werner spoke to MassLive's Sean McAdam to take back the "full throttle" remark that was an empty premise from the jump. Ownership's real plan basically was Yoshinobu Yamamoto or bust. Turns out, other clubs liked the 25-year-old ace as well, who would've thought?
In the interview where he attempted to tone down his earlier comments, Werner seemingly blamed Breslow for the lack of spending this winter as the entire ownership group continues to pretend that they are as fiscally invested in the Red Sox as ever.
“In the end, we don’t have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig (Breslow) is going to deliver on his assurance that we’re going to be competitive," Werner told McAdam.
According to this line, Breslow does not have any budgetary restraints and ownership will back whichever baseball decision the former reliever makes.
Either Breslow truly feels that Teoscar Hernández was not worth more than two years, $14 million and both Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell are about to be overpaid -- or ownership is once again lying.
I'd lean toward the latter, though we do not know the spending habits of Breslow. One thing that should be mentioned, Breslow could have fielded a strong pitching staff while being frugal by adding Michael Wacha, Seth Lugo and/or Shota Imanaga.
Ownership likely is handicapping Breslow but there were some ways to make this team competitive under the luxury tax.
Breslow does not appear to be building a contender and is instead banking on the farm system to bail him out.
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