Hours after the greatest regular season collapse in Major League Baseball history was authored by a team many felt was invincible coming into the season, the shock is still settling in across the baseball world.
To have a team that was built that strong get taken down by the likes of Nolan Reimold and Robert Andino after the lowly Baltimore Orioles found themselves down to their last strike of the season is simply unfathomable. That it happened with seemingly unstoppable closer Jonathan Papelbon on the hill only makes the surprise that much greater and strengthens the sting for Red Sox Nation.
And as baseball fans awake this morning staring into the harsh glow of the morning sunlight streaming through their blinds, groggy from a night unlike any other we’ve ever seen in the history of baseball, one thing has become glaringly apparent about the Boston Red Sox.
It’s time to break up the band.
In life, all good things come to an end at some point.
That relationship with the girl you met over the summer at a street festival eventually turns sour, with constant fighting and the two of you wondering why you’re together at all. The glory days of your college years where you knew everyone and everything came easy harshly dead ending into an adulthood that will teach you that you will not in fact save the world, despite how badly you wanted to as an idealistic teenager. That band that you love that provided the soundtrack to so many of your good times will eventually sour on the idea of making music together and cease doing so.
Much like those things, the end has come for the Red Sox as we know them, from the top down, several of whom have been around since the improbable 2004 World Series run that forever ended all talk of the Curse of the Bambino. A similar effort is currently underway on Chicago’s South side, where such White Sox icons as Ozzie Guillen and Mark Buehrle are leaving town to make room for a new generation.
That sounds strange given the fact that the team lead the American League in all major offensive categories, but as the season wore on it became clear that the current Red Sox were not built to last. The fact that the team was reportedly considering trading for Kansas City’s Bruce Chen on the very last day of the season tells you all you need to know about how much faith GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona have in the existing pitching staff.
Even if by some miracle Robert Andino’s fly ball had landed in the glove of Carl Crawford and the Yankees had held on down in Tampa, you had the feeling that this team wasn’t going to last longer than three games in the postseason against really anyone. The dread had set in and while players will tell you they don’t sense things like that, it’s hard not to when you go 7-20 in the month of September, blowing a playoff spot that had essentially been yours to lose since the season began.
Where do we begin though? Start at the top. It may sound sacrilegious to even suggest this but the time has come for Epstein and Francona to move on with their careers. These two men did what no Red Sox fan prior to 2004 thought possible — built a roster that was complete enough to win the World Series and actually guided it to the promised land.
However both are equally to blame for this season’s epic collapse, one that will resonate around Beantown for years to come. It was Epstein who overpaid mightily for then-Angels ace John Lackey two years ago, only to watch him post a .500 record and an ERA above 6.00 this season despite the fact that he’s earning nearly $16 million to be that mediocre. Epstein also gave a $100+ million contract to the aforementioned Carl Crawford, who if not for Adam Dunn would be in the conversation for biggest bust this season.
Francona on the other hand seemed almost overmatched down the stretch as he tried to stop the karmic steamroller that eventually caught up to his squad after years of champagne drenched locker room celebrations. His handling of the pitching staff — giving starts to Kyle Weiland over Alfredo Aceves among other thigns — was questionable at best and may have cost the team a playoff spot. Giving both a fresh start elsewhere – likely Chicago with Epstein going to the Cubs and Francona to the White Sox – would likely be a more palatable option for the Red Sox than having both come back in the wake of such an epic collapse.
As for the rest of the roster, it’s time for Red Sox ownership to make some tough decisions when it comes to guys who will always have a sentimental place in team history. Tim Wakefield earned the right to win his 200th game with the team and while his arm can probably hold up for a couple more years, team ownership would be better off hitting the free agent market to find a younger arm. Wakefield’s only part of the problem when it comes to the pitching staff though. The team needs to figure out whether Aceves – who has electric stuff – is going to be a starter or a reliever at this level and just stick with that. Clay Buchholz is still young enough to come back from injury but how he’ll perform once that happens remains to be seen. Late season acquisition Erik Bedard clearly isn’t the answer to whatever questions the Red Sox have. As for Lackey, it might be tempting for Larry Lucchino to simply eat his contract and send him packing given A. how he pitched down the stretch and B. the fact that he’s now – fairly or not – a public relations liability.
Likewise guys like Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew are on the downside of their careers, making a ton of money and not producing the results that merit such salaries. Crawford needs to start showing some signs of his Tampa Bay days next season and not have a repeat of 2011, otherwise he too might merit the Lackey treatment wherein the team eats a significant portion of his salary to trade him for parts of value. As mentioned above, statistically the offense is in much better shape than the rotation, but it could still benefit from some younger players who don’t bear the stigma of being a part of this collapse. Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury all provide a solid base around which to build, it’s just a question of plugging in newer players around them.
All good things must come to an end. And if the Red Sox are going to taste the postseason glory that will rid their mouths of the foul taste from this year’s collapse, it’s time to do some rebuilding so that foundation remains strong for the future.
