B-Side Sports Are the Sox striking out? ❌ Plus: 🤯 Belichick reached out to WHO?! Sam Kennedy, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow, chief baseball officer, and Alex Cora, team manager, sit during the end-of-season press conference at Fenway Park. Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Good Morning, Boston.
On this day in 2001 … Adam Vinatieri won his kicker’s duel with Buffalo’s Shayne Graham, nailing a game-winning, 23-yard field goal in overtime to lead the Patriots to a 12-9 victory over the Bills. It was New England’s fourth straight win in a streak that — little did they know — would take them all the way to a Super Bowl title.
Also on this day back in 1773: Samuel Adams and a bunch of angry Bostonians threw nearly 50 tons of tea into Boston Harbor in what became known as — you guessed it — the Boston Tea Party. Rumor has it that’s where the lyrics to “Dirty Water” originated. It was Sam Adam’s second-most important contribution to the Commonwealth after brewing Derrick White’s beer.
WHAT’S ON TAP TODAY:
Kraft standing by his guy?
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Randy mosses cancer
Joe Mazzulla magic
LET’S GET INTO IT…
LEADING OFF
Mo’ money, mo’ problems?
Image: Danielle Parhizkaran/Boston Globe
The Red Sox haven’t flashed the cash … yet. It’s been a week since the start of MLB’s winter meetings, and the Sox haven’t lived up to their fans’ lofty offseason expectations. They did trade for a new ace in Garrett Crochet and dealt backup infielder Emmanuel Valdez for young righty Joe Vogatsky, but …
They missed out on Juan Soto, who signed a record-breaking $765 million deal with the Mets.
They were outbid by the Yankees for southpaw ace Max Fried and haven’t signed another starter.
They still need to add a right-handed power bat (well, at least one).
Even with their one big move, fans are losing patience.
It’s raising old fears about the Sox. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and even team president Sam Kennedy have been very direct about their desire to bolster the Sox in 2025. But Red Sox fans want more. They want to see their team get the biggest name on the market for once and have payrolls rivaling the Yankees and Dodgers — the only two MLB teams more valuable than Boston. So far, that hasn’t happened yet.
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The Sox do need to spend the money … As of now, the Red Sox have an estimated payroll of about $150 million after the Crochet trade, according to FanGraphs. That estimate places them 13th in the league currently despite them reportedly earning $500 million in revenue (fourth-highest in MLB). Meanwhile, two of baseball’s three highest-spending teams last year just faced off in the World Series, and the other (the Mets) just paid a king’s ransom to get Soto.
… But they still have to be smart about it. While the Sox should act like a big-market team, missing on investments hurts the Sox more than it does for the Yankees, Dodgers, or the deep-pocketed Mets. For example: the need to shed payroll after handing out albatross deals to Chris Sale and David Price prompted Boston to send Mookie Betts to Los Angeles in 2020. That doesn’t mean the Red Sox should never spend over the Competitive Balance Tax, but they do need to be strategic about how they allocate cash.
The next few weeks are crucial for Boston. With Soto off the table, the market for other big-name players like Teoscar Hernandez or Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (via a blockbuster trade) could accelerate. If the Sox can land one of those two plus another starter (even another ace like Corbin Burnes?), fans will likely lay off the front office (for now anyway). But at the moment, the team’s reputation as a big-market franchise that won’t spend like one isn’t going anywhere.
3B Alex Bregman
Prediction: 8 years, $216M to the Detroit Tigers pic.twitter.com/LzPSu1rWpF — B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) December 14, 2024
BOSTON SPORTS
Quick hits & headlines
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Image: Danielle Parhizkaran/Boston Globe
🧐 Robert Kraft will reportedly keep Jerod Mayo for 2025. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini wrote Saturday that the elder Kraft has privately decided to retain Mayo as the Patriots’ coach for next season (barring a catastrophic collapse). The way Jonathan Kraft was acting during the Patriots’ 30-17 loss, though, that safety might not be guaranteed.
✈️ Bill Belichick reached out to the JETS?!? After a year of dunking on the dysfunctional team he spent years humiliating, Belichick apparently did check in on New York’s open head coaching gig before choosing UNC. Now that’s what we call being down bad. Never let anyone tell you he didn’t want that NFL wins record.
🏆 A potential future Patriot wins the Heisman. Voters anointed Colorado’s Travis Hunter as college football’s top player after the two-way star proved himself the best wide receiver and cornerback in the country. Several pundits have already mocked Hunter to the Patriots in the upcoming NFL Draft, and Hunter himself thinks he and Drake Maye would be tough to stop.
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🙏🏽 Randy Moss says he’s beaten cancer. The Hall-of-Fame receiver and former Patriot announced Friday that he recently had surgery to remove cancer in his bile duct and is currently cancer-free. No one’s ever shut down Moss one-on-one, and he wasn’t about to let cancer break that streak.
👑 The Celtics three-peat in key stat. Thursday’s win over the Pistons earned the C’s their third straight 20-5 start to the season under Joe Mazzulla. The last time they pulled that off? From 2007-08 — their last championship year before 2024 — through 2009-10. That “killer whale” mentality works.
The @Celtics won more than just a championship this year… they were also the most viewed Basketball Reference NBA team page in the majority of states! ☘️ pic.twitter.com/SttIKe3hlc — Basketball Reference (@bball_ref) December 15, 2024
ASK A FAN
Change on the horizon?
Image: Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe
“Do you see major changes for the Patriots coaching staff? I’m sure Mayo is safe but others aren’t or shouldn’t be.” — @Cmerc5 (X).
Thanks for the question!
Before yesterday, Jerod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt felt safe barring a catastrophic closing month. But between Mayo being unable to keep his foot out of his mouth and everyone sniping at Van Pelt after the game, these final three games might decide their fates. Van Pelt’s done good work developing Maye, but his game plans haven’t been great. Meanwhile, defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington has overseen major regression on that side of the ball in his first year. Not being as good a coach as Bill Belichick isn’t necessarily fireable, but creating a dysfunctional, undisciplined environment is.
THEY SAID IT, NOT ME
No “I” in “Team”
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Image: Matthew J Lee/Boston Globe
We do have egos. We just put them in the right place. Joe Mazzulla on the Celtics’ unselfish approach.
You said it. I didn’t. Jerod Mayo when asked about the Patriots not using Drake Maye’s mobility on QB sneaks.
I felt like all of the chaos was stripped away. Garrett Crochet on being traded to the Red Sox from the White Sox.
GAME … SET … MEME
Well … we’re waiting!
I am begging y’all. Red Sox. Please. Do. Something. pic.twitter.com/MDOqRlmOhA — Alex Moffitt (Soldier_1stClass) (@Sold1st_class) December 10, 2024
⏳ Come on, Red Sox … do something. The funny thing: the Crochet trade happened the day after this meme was first posted. So re-posting it will clearly make the Sox sign Corbin Burnes or trade for Vlad Guerrero Jr. by Tuesday. It’s science.
🗞 That’s a wrap. I’ll be saving my ‘”Goodbye Wilyer Abreu” post in the drafts for when the Sox trade him in their next big move.
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