The first three-plus weeks of the 2019 Red Sox season have been hugely disappointing. On that, there would seem little debate.
The starting rotation face-planted for the first two weeks, the offense has been strangely inconsistent, and the defense an abject disappointment, leading to almost three-quarters of an unearned run every game.
Say what you will about the team's offseason roster construction and stubborn refusal to upgrade its bullpen in the wake of Craig Kimbrel and Joe Kelly's absence, but few -- if any -- saw this coming.
Heading into Saturday night, the Red Sox already found themselves a full seven games out of first place. By comparison, the 2018 Sox never were more than two games out the entire way.
Such ineptitude has, perhaps predictably, led to some doomsday scenario and full-on panic button pushing, including the theory, advanced by David Price, that further sinking in the standings will lead to an inevitable wholesale sell-off of the roster.
If things don't get better, Price told Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez and perhaps Price himself would all be traded away with the Sox throwing in the towel on 2019 and beginning from scratch.
Balk!
In the unlikely event that things don't eventually improve for the Red Sox , no such sell-off will take place.
Let us count the reasons why (not):
1. The Sox are poised to remain competitive for a while.
Even if this indeed becomes a lost season -- a determination that will require weeks of wretched play combined with the Rays (or someone else) establishing further distance between themselves and the Sox -- the team's window to compete in the near future is hardly closed.
As underwhelming as the performance of the rotation has been, its current members are all under control through at least 2021, with the exception of Rick Porcello. That alone should guarantee a competitive club going forward, even as the group's failings are chiefly responsible for the current crisis. Chris Sale, Price, Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez alone should make the team playoff-worthy when they pitch to their capabilities. (Eovaldi's setback Saturday morning for a loose body in his elbow is mildly troubling in the relative short-term, but hardly cause for long-term concern).
Moreover, the team is set at third base, shortstop and left field for several more seasons and controls the other two-thirds of its outfield through the end of 2020. Any suggestion that the team would be better off dealing off Betts in exchange for a passel of prospects couldn't be more wrongheaded. Betts, his slow start notwithstanding, is one of the three best players in the game, in the prime of his career and hasn't ruled out re-signing with Boston despite putting such talks on hold for the time being. (The franchise, meanwhile, has enough resources to retain/extend Betts when the time comes and make him the highest-paid player in the game if necessary).
And while the minor league system is still rebuilding, there are enough position players (Michael Chavis, Bobby Dalbec) near-ready to augment the roster and fill holes.
2. Dave Dombrowski has a legacy to protect.
Dombrowski will turn 63 in July. He has a contract in place through 2020, though, there have been intimations that, at some point, he'll get a contract extension of his own before the calendar year ends.
He has two titles to his credit -- one in 1997 in Miami and another last year with the Red Sox. He would like to add at least one more before he retires and isn't about to go elsewhere in search of one. A team-wide sell-off would push back any hope of another World Series win for years, something that would not interest Dombrowski.
3. Red Sox ownership doesn't do rebuilds.
The Sox finished last in 2012. They did so again in both 2014 and 2015, the latter two in the immediate aftermath of a World Series win in 2013.
Do you recall veterans dealt off for 20-year old future stars? Certainly not.
While the Red Sox did unload veterans such as Jon Lester, John Lackey and Yoenis Cespedes, the targets weren't the cream of someone else's prospect crop. Instead -- rightly or wrongly -- the team made deals for established players: Joe Kelly, Allen Craig and Rick Porcello. (Admittedly, the Andrew Miller for Rodriguez swap was the lone exception to the rule).
Boston, it was theorized, wouldn't stand for a total rebuild. (I happen to disagree with this theory, but that's beside the point and an argument for another day. The point is that ownership believes it, and since they would have to sign off on any teardown and tanking program, the voices and beliefs of John Henry and Tom Werner are the only ones that count in this debate).
It's unclear why Price voiced his worst-case-scenario publicly. Perhaps it was meant to get the attention of his teammates and scare them straight. Price is among the most thoughtful and perceptive of the veterans in the Red Sox clubhouse and is certainly entitled to his opinion.
But it remains only that. And, based on all evidence, a misguided one at that.
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