Terry Francona, Theo Epstein, Jonathan Papelbon, and Heidi Watney are all gone, and we just learned that Carl Crawford had surgery on his wrist, which isn’t going to make things easier for his big bounce-back season.
I can live with all of the above - even if we won’t have J.D. Drew to kick around anymore - but I can’t stand talk about payroll limits and luxury tax obligations.
After spending like Charlie Sheen on a weekend bender, the Sox suddenly are fiscally responsible in this bad-news winter? They got burned when they signed John Lackey and Crawford, and now they’re worried about going over the dreaded $178 million luxury tax threshold (they were taxed at a rate of 30 percent last year, and that goes to 40 percent if they exceed the limit again this year)?
“There’s been significant commitments made the last two offseasons which pushed our payroll further north, and we made those decisions knowing that it wasn’t going to continue to go further north at the same trajectory forever,’’ said new general manager Ben Cherington before last night’s feast.
“At some point, there’s a limit. There’s no marker necessarily on where that limit is, but we made decisions over the last two offseasons knowing we were going to be closer to where that threshold is.’’
Pete Townshend translation: We won’t get fooled again.
It is Cherington’s bad timing that he happens to be in the chair at a moment in Sox history when ownership has said, “Enough with the spending.’’
And while the Sox have been standing still, holding the line, the Angels, Rangers, and Yankees are getting better.
In fairness, this was a good offseason to stay away from free agents. Nobody wanted the Sox to pony up for C.J. Wilson. But most of us would have been OK if the Sox matched the four-year deal the Phillies gave Papelbon. Instead, the Sox went for “value’’ with their closer search.
It was a little alarming to hear Cherington’s response when he was asked how his starting rotation compares with his rivals’.
