In their traditional end of season press conference, Red Sox front office leaders and Manager Alex Cora took questions from the press today. Beside word that first base coach Tom Goodwin was no longer with the team, there was little in the way of hard news broken. Still, there were some general insights of interest to Red Sox Nation.
President/CEO Sam Kennedy
“Everyone in baseball ops just did a really outstanding job this year…Want to thank all the players who contributed to what was a very, very special season…Thanks to our front office, everyone who worked tirelessly to create a great atmosphere and energy at Fenway. We’ve been through a difficult two years together, so thank you to all of them, your teammates. Thanks to the media [who] worked under very difficult circumstances…And finally, last but not least, a huge thank you to our fans.”
“This is our 20th year here in Boston with the Red Sox and I have never seen anything like what we witnessed at Fenway Park towards the end of this season and into October. It was electric. An amazing, amazing atmosphere. That’s obviously a credit to the play on the field, but the fans brought something special and we’re really excited to build on that.”
On potential labor issues ahead as the current collective bargaining agreement nears its expiration: “There is a will and a desire to get a deal done and keep building our industry back up…I believe the will is there, on both sides, to get a deal done.”
Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom
“In February, when I was asked about what my hopes, what my goals were for the season, I talked about how even if we went all the way and won the whole thing, that wanted to come out of it feeling like this could be the start of something. Like we had our next core, which would include players from the last championship and then players that were joining this core, being a part of something we could be excited about going forward. We fell six wins short of that ultimate goal, but I think in terms of this being the start of something,…I think we’re there. I think the mission now is just to continue to build on that…that’s the type of vibe we want to here every year, to have a club capable of doing that every year…We want to carry this forward and win every year.”
On his experience with the fans at Fenway Park: “I’ve experienced that a lot as a visitor. I haven’t experienced it with having it be with the wind in our sails.” With respect to fan solid support in the Wild Card game and ALCS home games, “That gave me chills, hearing that. I got to see and feel just how awesome of an experience it is, how much it helps us as an organization, how much it helps our players. And it really clarified why we’re doing this and what we’re trying to deliver: We are trying to deliver a product that is worthy of what we saw in those games. And it’s on us to make sure we’re doing that every year.”
“I don’t like using the word ‘random’ when we talk about guy’s accomplishments…I don’t think we should take away from the accomplishments of what these guys did.”
On his philosophy for assessing the season: “Generally speaking, it’s important to step back and when we look at ourselves as a team or we look at individual players, we try to strip away as much noise as possible, really get to what are the underlying abilities, what was the underlying performance…What these guys did on a nightly basis, especially once they got to October, that matters, and shows something about them, too. The buttons that Alex and the staff pushed, the way the players competed. That’s important, that shows you something.”
On the importance of reaching the postseason: “We have young players who’ve never tasted [the postseason] before. For them to go through this, whether it was as a critical participant or even being an off-roster guy that was here on the taxi squad, once you experience this, it will never seem like a real, complete season ever again unless you’re back on this stage, and I think that’s really important for these guys going forward.”
On Rafael Devers had been undergoing elbow inflammation. “We did some imaging during and nothing concerning was found…Something that rest should do a lot to help.”
Bloom announced that first base coach Tom Goodwin “won’t be returning to the staff.” Bloom said that Goodwin’s unwillingness to vaccinate against COVID had no impact on dismissal. “It was a baseball decision.” While still early, Bloom says “the intent is that everyone else [on the coaching staff] will be back.”
On Christian Vázquez, for whom team has an option for 2022: Though stressing it’s early days, “He’s a really important guy to us and we know how much the organization means to him…You don’t take for granted when you have someone who’s shown that he can do it.”
On Xander Bogaerts (a year away from an opt-out) and Rafael Devers (two years from free agency), Bloom said it’s still early in the off-season, but that “both of them are cornerstone players for us. They are guys that you want here as long as you can have them here. They’re a huge part of what we did this year. They were a huge part of the last championship. They’re going to be a huge part of our success going forward. Obviously, what the means, how we address, when we address it, it’s still early to say, we have a lot of conversations to have…but we want them here and we want to win with them.”
On Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck: “Those are both guys that have very high ceilings. They have the capabilities, both of them, to be really good Major League starting pitchers. Now, what the means for next year…I think that’s something we have to talk about. Obviously, we want to have as much depth as we possibly can. We shouldn’t sit here and stop at five, or six, or seven. We should have as many options as we possibly can because over the course of the marathon, and then into the postseason, you need everybody. The more good options you have, the more you put yourself into a position to realize some positive surprises out of that group, too…We’re going to talk about that over the winter.”
On Garrett Richards: “Without what he did in the bullpen we absolutely would not have made the postseason,” but adds, “where that leads us, as far as a decision [about his future with the team], we haven’t gotten into yet.”
Manager Alex Cora
On defensive play: “We’re going to take a look at everything we did right and the things that didn’t go right, that’s from positioning, to attacking hitters, to first steps, to throws, to cutover relays to tags. One of the things about defensive metrics, it’s not only about catching the ground ball and throwing to first. There’s other stuff that comes into play. We did an outstanding job preparing these guys to do it. There were certain days that it didn’t look right, but I do believe, towards the end of the season, we started playing better. And you see the results. I always said that whenever we played good defense, we became a really, really good team.”
On Red Sox rotation: “I think, obviously, with Chris [Sale] being heathy, that’s a plus. The way he finished the season, I think everybody here, and everybody in the organization, feels very positive about his off-season program and what’s going to happen next year. There are some young guys that we liked and we’ll make decisions…how we’re going to use them next year, but we feel very comfortable where we at pitching-wise…Going into the off-season we’re very pleased where we at.”
On Red Sox baserunning in 2021: “We have to be better, running-wise. Overall, we were OK,” but says he’ll address some issues with individuals, but “as a coaching staff, we have to recognize a few things and keep getting better.”