Are expectations for the '25 season different than past? Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy joins! How is the pitching depth? Is a Crochet extension in the works? #MLB
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00:00is the president of the Boston Red Sox, Sam Kennedy, who joins us this morning. Hey, Sam.
00:06Good morning, guys. Greetings from Dallas. How are you?
00:09We're doing great. You'll probably say every season, but when it comes to anticipation
00:17and expectation with what happened in the offseason,
00:21where do you rank heading into today during the time you've been here?
00:25Well, there's probably a reason to see bias, but I don't remember as much anticipation
00:31and excitement for a while. It's been a really, really long offseason, a very productive one.
00:38We had a team event last night. We were just talking about how ready everyone is to go,
00:42and can't wait to get to the ballpark today. Sam, obviously, everybody very excited about
00:48Garrett Crochet, and I know you've said to other media outlets that you're not going to talk about
00:52negotiations for extensions leading into the season, but when you look at your pitching
00:57rotation, and you've got him, obviously, but then you've got Buehler, who has his first year back
01:01from a second Tommy John, and then you have three starters that are starting on IR, you guys have
01:08dealt with bad injuries the last two seasons, and that's kind of been the falloff for you.
01:12Is there an emphasis going into this season to make sure that history isn't repeating itself,
01:16that you guys have people healthy, and what are some of the things that you are making
01:19sure that your players are doing to keep everyone healthy? Yeah, it's the most important part of the
01:25game is health and availability, and everybody deals with injuries, so we can't use that as
01:31an excuse. It has plagued us over the last couple years. We're really glad Garrett's ready to take
01:37the ball today, and he's going to anchor, we hope, a rotation that is built to last throughout the
01:42course of the year, but we did make a lot of moves in this offseason, in terms of internal and
01:48external, so we hope that we have more depth, both in the starting pitching rotation, but also in
01:54the bullpen. But it is a challenge that our medical and training staff work on
01:59tirelessly to make sure everybody can go out and take the ball when we need them. I wasn't clear
02:04from his statement, did he specifically say, hey, once opening day gets here, don't want to
02:12talk about a new deal, or is it something that you guys can have an ongoing discussion about?
02:19You know, we're not going to discuss any negotiations that are happening in private
02:26or discussions. There's no baseball MLB rule or deadline, but we will follow Garrett's
02:33lead in terms of the desire to have conversations, given the nature where he's here.
02:39He's, like I said, anchoring our rotation, and any discussions about what happens two, three
02:46years from now, we'll keep private. Alex Cora, on this radio station yesterday afternoon, talked
02:53about Rafael Devers and accepting that he's going to DH for this team. We all got to hear
03:01his passion about playing third base. How involved and even difficult was it to get him to
03:10kind of come to terms with what Alex Cora thought should be his role?
03:16You know, he's doing exactly what you would want him to do, which is doing what's best
03:21for the team. And he's, as I've said a few times, he's the only guy in that clubhouse
03:27wearing a uniform as a player that's got that World Series ring on his shelf.
03:34So he's a championship caliber player. He's the cornerstone of our franchise.
03:39He's invested in winning as much as anybody else, and he's going to contribute however he can to
03:45our plans. You definitely want players that want to be where they want to be on the field,
03:50but in the end, Rafi understands the conversations that he's had with Alex. We've left it to those
03:57two guys. That's the right level to have those conversations, and he's ready to go and
04:02excited for opening day, just like the rest of us. Sam, I know you don't get into specific with
04:08players in their contract, but what's it like to balance knowing that, you know, just any player,
04:14but knowing that you have somebody who could be really, really good in the future that you
04:21might be trying to figure out what their deal is going to be worth then and trying to get something
04:26done now because maybe the money's going to be a little bit different? Like, what's that like from
04:30the front office perspective to know that we're trying to get something done now with a specific
04:36player, but that price tag might go up? Even though it's a good thing, it might go up a lot
04:41more than we expect. Yeah, it's a great question, Wiggy, because the hardest thing in professional
04:49sports is to balance those two sort of misaligned things, which are your term and long term,
04:57and our responsibility in the ownership group and in the front office is to be doing everything we
05:04can to win now, win today's game, you know, here this afternoon in Dallas, and also win in 2030,
05:122032 and beyond. So you're always trying to balance the near term with the long term, and
05:18it's really, really difficult and challenging, and if you look back over, this will be my 24th
05:25opening day with the Red Sox, we've had lots of ups and downs, and I think that's representative
05:31of where you've had some great near-term success and then near-term failures, it goes
05:38with the territory. But what we try to do is balance both each and every day as we're
05:44addressing our roster to make sure we've got the perfect balance, as Red Sox fans know, our
05:51young homegrown players that come up through the organization and can ultimately contribute at the
05:56big league level, international signings, we've had a lot of success in that area, and then big
06:02free agent signings, and so that combination is really the ingredients that you want for
06:09championship baseball, and hopefully we'll get there this year and in 2025, but also beyond.
06:16Sam, I'm not sure, you said you're in Texas, so unlikely you were listening before you came on,
06:20but we were all accused of being Red Sox honks and apologists, so I just hope
06:24you missed it. Hold on, hold on, the world is turning in a different direction on its axis,
06:31Red Sox apologists on WEI, you gotta be kidding me, who said that? It's a wild world. You gotta
06:37read too much social media, you read too much social media, I'd advise you guys to get off
06:42social media. It would be great for all of our health. This guy, Chad, felt like I was not hard
06:48enough on Will Middlebrooks for the construction of this team over the last four years.
06:56It was all his fault. Sam, we spoke all last year, and prior to last year, we discussed the
07:03roster construction and everything, and you had mentioned that it's a breakeven business,
07:09the baseball component of it, and Forbes has a list that came out, I think yesterday,
07:14with the valuations of the franchises, the Red Sox just under $5 billion as the third most
07:19valuable franchise in Major League Baseball, and they note that the operating income of the Boston
07:23Red Sox was $120 million last year, which put the Red Sox as the best, most profitable
07:33in Major League Baseball. Is that number accurate, and what does that signify to you?
07:40I can assure you that number is inaccurate, number one. Number two, yeah, I can assure you of that,
07:47but it wouldn't serve the Boston Red Sox or me well to get into a debate or a discussion publicly
07:53about our finances. Here's what I'll tell you. This ownership group has consistently demonstrated
07:59a willingness to invest in all areas of the franchise, from preserving and protecting Fenway
08:06Park, to investing in player payroll, to investing in our minor league affiliates,
08:12our spring training affiliates. The resources have not been a problem. Have we made mistakes
08:19in terms of where we've invested in the past? Yeah, of course we have, but really excited about
08:24where we are for 2025, and I think our fans care about who's putting on the uniforms today and
08:31going out there versus the business side of the game, so I'll leave it at that.
08:35First season in a long time that there will be baseball on the radio and on the Odyssey app
08:41without Joe Castiglione, but we just had Will Middlebrooks on, and so it's going to be Will
08:49Fleming and Will Middlebrooks, and I think we can share Lou Merloni doing some games,
08:54and Sean McDonough, right, Sam? Yeah, that's right. I think we'll probably have the only
09:02name that was left out. I think we'll probably have Mike Monaco doing some games as well. 162
09:08is a grind, and there's only one Joe Castiglione, so it takes six or seven guys to fill his shoes.
09:14We all know that. Let me clean up, if I could, Curtis, to use an apropos analogy
09:23on a couple things from last year. Still no spicy mustard, and I don't know what's the deal.
09:32We got to get true. Greg, let's call troop together after this call. We'll get on that.
09:38Okay, all right. What about the Curtis first pitch? Are we shut out on that,
09:45or can we try to make that happen this season? Definitely shut out on that.
09:52People tell me I have to be better at saying no. That's a hard no.
09:57And just to clear up the cocoa bomb, was there any interest at any time from
10:02UCN Kennedy in buying the Boston Celtics? That was a cocoa bomb at one point.
10:10We're focused on the Boston Red Sox. Excited about Bill Chisholm. I'll just say it's a small
10:18world. There's a lot of connections to Bill. I think Celtics fans are going to love this guy.
10:24It's exciting to think about a homegrown kid who grew up here loving the Celtics,
10:29and now he's going to eventually be the owner of the team. I actually spoke to Wick
10:35the other day. He gave me a little bit more background on him. It's really exciting and
10:39fantastic. What a great job Wick has done in terms of the championships. We've been involved
10:45with the Red Sox as long as Wick has been involved with the Celtics. Wick's been such a great part of
10:51this era in Boston sports. He was really focused on getting it in the right hands,
10:56and it sounds like he has. So that's really exciting for Celtics fans.
11:00Sam, not numbers-wise in terms of profit or loss, but it has felt for us since being down in Fort
11:08Myers that there has been a renewed interest in the team after the offseason. Have you noticed
11:12that in ticket sales as a general rule? Yeah, there's been a hugely positive reaction.
11:20I think any time you add two top-of-the-rotation starters and a gold-glove caliber
11:27player in Alex Brayman, there's a lot of interest and excitement. But Chris, on a serious note,
11:33you know as much about the Red Sox as anybody. I do think there's also a reaction to this
11:40young core group of guys. Christian's going to be in the lineup today, which is amazing
11:47just to think about that last year was his first camp. Before that, he was at Georgia Tech,
11:53and I think he played at Georgia Tech for exactly one year. It's pretty extraordinary.
11:58There's nothing like young, homegrown players to get our fans excited. So there's a lot of
12:04excitement around the short-term prospects for the Sox, which is just great. Sam, when you look
12:11at this team, I think over the past couple of years, you guys seem like you're always top 10,
12:15top 5 in most major hitting categories. It's been the rotation. You talked about adding some
12:21of these pieces. How involved has Craig Breslow been and just the coaching staff when it comes
12:30to pitching and the excitement around the pieces that you added and what this rotation could
12:36potentially do this year, especially when you get some key guys back from injuries?
12:41Yeah, look, I mean, huge credit to Bres. One of the first things he did is went out and
12:47convinced Andrew Bailey to stay away from the New York Yankees and get him to the Red Sox.
12:53You know Andrew's a New Yorker, and that was his hometown team, and getting him here was
13:00a huge thing for us. He's done a great job revamping our entire pitching program from
13:05all the way down in rookie ball up through the big leagues, taking a player development focus
13:11that doesn't stop when guys get to Fenway Park and continuing that growth and development. Andrew
13:17has led that effort. He's done a great job. And Bres, if there's anything this guy knows,
13:22it's pitching. Literally willed himself to become a major league pitcher. When you look at Bres,
13:29he doesn't exactly look like a big leaguer. And this guy, he's a great guy. He's a great
13:36guy. Made himself a quality major league reliever. Played for 13 years. That was something we,
13:42frankly, for forever in our time in Boston, we've not had a great track record of drafting,
13:48developing, pitching, and that's something that we're working really hard on. And we have a long
13:53way to go, but there's a lot of good signs in camp and throughout the minor leagues on that front.
13:59So excited to see what comes through the farm. Well, it is exciting, Sam. Thanks for taking
14:04the time on opening day and we will talk to you again throughout the season, but go get them.
14:11Look forward to it, guys. Thanks so much. Enjoy today.
14:14All right. That is Sam Kennedy.