The Dombrowski Debacle

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By Alex Horton

The Boston Red Sox have found themselves in an interesting position right now. Currently sitting at 54-46 they are 11 games out of first place in the American League East and are 3 games behind in the Wild Card race. The team is definitely different from last years World Series Champions that completely dominated the regular season and playoffs. The problem isn’t their offense. The Red Sox have scored the most runs in the MLB and rank first in batting average, hits and on base percentage. They are one of the top offensive clubs in baseball again this year. So why then do they only have a 12 percent chance of making the playoffs?

WELL do I have the answer for YOU! Dave Dombrowski might just be one of the most overrated President of Baseball Operations in the entire game. Some of the moves he made last year were great and resulted in the Red Sox winning a World Series. I will not fault him for that. However he was gifted a team stacked with talent and a super star free agent who wanted to come to Boston in JD Martinez. The trades for Steven Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi went as smoothly as anyone could have hoped and both were pivotal in helping the Sox win the World Series. BUT the construction that Dombrowski has done to the roster is piss poor at best. I am a Red Sox fan so I really hope I eat my words and that this take falls flat on its face. Let me start with this, the bullpen and starting pitching has been the down fall of the Red Sox all season long. No matter how many runs you score if you can’t stop the guys on the other side from scoring you won’t win ball games.

The start of the Red Sox problems started in the off-season before they even played a game. The signings of Eovaldi and Pearce came first. The Eovaldi one I honestly have no problem with, a starter that you can turn into a bullpen arm can work itself out. But signing Steven Pearce and allowing for relievers like Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel to walk has turned out as most had predicted. Which is poorly. The Red Sox bullpen has been absolutely abysmal this year with only 2 pitchers having an ERA under 4. Those pitchers are Brandon Workman who has been absolutely lights out with an ERA of 1.84 and Marcus Walden who started the season off really well but has faltered as of late with a 3.58 ERA. Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier and the others who man the pen have to either get some help or get their shit together if the Sox want to make the playoffs again and help defend their title.

Back to Dombrowski though. After having just won the World Series by having a superior bullpen that was performing at the top of their game, to come out and say that the Red Sox would not be spending on the bullpen is like cutting off the right arm of a right handed pitcher. Unless Dombrowski is going to make moves at the deadline fans need to question what the Sox plan to do when it comes to the deadline. After just losing a series to the Baltimore Orioles the Red Sox are going to have to do some soul searching on whether they are going to be buyers at the deadline and make a final push to make the playoffs or if they are going to be sellers and look to trading JD Martinez or even as unfortunate as it may be Mookie Betts who has already come out and said he wants to test the waters of free agency. Now this does not mean that Mookie will leave the Sox. He could test free agency and end up coming back. But if there is no inclination of him resigning right away the Red Sox do not want to make the same mistake the Nationals did and balk on trading their biggest asset and lose out on getting a haul of prospects and even MLB ready talent. Now Mookie will not become a free agent until after next year so there is still some time but the thought process must still be there. Only time will tell what will happen. But the clock is ticking and the deadline is just about a week away.