Ownership points fingers at John Farrell, Chili Davis for disappointing 2017

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Somewhere Monday morning, John Farrell and Chili Davis must have felt their ears burning.

In their annual spring media availability, Red Sox principal owner John Henry and, to a lesser extent, chairman Tom Werner appeared to lay the blame of a disappointing season at the feet of the team’s former manager and ex-hitting coach, and suggested that the Sox had improved merely by firing the manager and overhauling the coaching staff.

When questioned about the team’s relative inactivity during the offseason, Henry pushed back.



“From my perspective,’’ said Henry, “people have talked about (how) we haven’t made a lot of changes from last year. But in my mind, we’ve made significant changes to address some of the things that were brought up. I do think we had issues last year….and we’ve addressed those issues.

“We made a lot of changes other than just the manager. You haven’t noticed? Who did we bring back? Dana (LeVangie, pitching coach) - anyone else? I’m just saying, from my perspective at least, we made a lot of changes. I think our approach, last year, was lacking and we had issues that the players have already talked about, so I don’t need to talk about. But I agree with what’s been said. But I don’t agree that we haven’t made changes. I think these were significant changes.’’

Henry then doubled down on a roster that has seen the Sox "add" only two of their own free agents: first baseman Mitch Moreland and infielder Eduardo Nunez.

“I think we have the right team,’’ said Henry. “I think we’re very strong and people are highly underrating this team. If we have the right approach, I think we’ll be very successful.’’

Questioned about the team’s power (the Sox finished dead last in the American League in home runs last season) Henry again took a thinly-veiled at Davis, now the Chicago Cubs' hitting coach.

“I think that we would have had significant power last year if we had had a different approach,’’ said Henry. “That’s my opinion. It may not be true, but I think we have a very good offense.’’

The Sox were guilty of a more passive approach at the plate last season, failing to adapt to the game-wide trend of being more aggressive earlier in the count. The Red Sox swung at just 21.1 percent of first pitches, the lowest percentage of the 30 teams in baseball.

“I think it was evident,’’ said Henry. “I don’t think we were nearly aggressive enough and I think our approach was lacking for a good part of the season.’’

The Sox have been linked to free agent J.D. Martinez, but find themselves in a contractual stalemate. Henry said he didn’t want to talk about free agents.

“We are very happy with our roster,’’ he said. “I think we do have the highest payroll in baseball. Again, we’re defending American League East champions and I feel like we’ve done what we’ve needed to do to improve this team.’’

Reminded that the Sox had merely retained Moreland and Nunez while the Yankees added NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, Henry was again asked if the Sox had done enough to keep pace with their rivals.

“I think so, absolutely, from my perspective,’’ he said. “I thought we had the right team last year, the last couple of years. But again, I think that some of the things that we identified here were what was missing from this team.’’

Together, Werner and Henry discussed the notion that the Sox were not likable last year, with Werner respectfully disagreeing with the characterization.

Henry then added: “We really don’t need to be popular; we need to win.’’

In the closing moments of the press conference, Henry appeared to walk back some of his implied criticism of Farrell, noting: “I’ve spoken about things we wanted to change from last year, but under John Farrell, we had tremendous success. He was a great manager for us. But there came a point where we felt we really needed to change directions and make a change and we did. But he still did a terrific job for us.’’

Except, apparently, when he and his hitting coach were apparently solely responsible for the team not winning more.

No pressure, Alex Cora and Tim Hyers. No pressure at all.