I get what you're saying,
@Philip Jeff Frye but I am going to choose to look at it differently.
The team - not just in the early part of this century - gave me some of the best moments I've ever had as a baseball fan. Over the last seven seasons they've given me three AL East titles, two trips to the ALCS, and a World Series title with the greatest team in franchise history. They've owned the Yankees in the postseason (what can be better than that?). And they've managed to be pretty competitive through what is obviously a MASSIVE rebuild of the entire organization.
While they've lost some players dear to my heart, that's how it's always been. I listed in a previous post some of my all-time favorite Sox players that the team let go: Lynn, Fisk, Clemens, Hurst, Boggs, Nomar, Valentin, Vaughn, Damon, Pedro, Trot, Lester, Manny, Betts, etc.. It's part of the business, unfortunately. And as the team transitions, there's a wonderful crop of exciting new players waiting in the wings: Bello, Casas, Mayer, Rafaela, Yorke, Mata, Romero, etc. Guys I've started to follow, just like I followed Betts and Bogaerts and Devers when they were in the minors. And I am pumped for the next wave of homegrown talent to show up at Fenway.
There have always been nameless, faceless mercenaries. We tend to remember the championship (or our favorite, even if not championship) teams fondly, for obvious reasons. But that doesn't mean they didn't have mercenaries and other teams' has-beens. The 2013 team had these guys, for example, who were castoffs from other organizations:
Saltalamacchia - came in 2010 and had a .661 ops with the Rangers in 2009.
Napoli - came over from Texas in 2013. He was a good player but nothing special. The Rangers sure didn't seem to need him.
S. Drew - Oh man another Drew? He was terrible for Arizona and Oakland in 2012, with an 81 ops+ and compiling a bWAR of 0.1.
Victorino - Was a solid player but had a down year in 2012 with an ops+ of 91. Why would the Sox sign this guy?
And then there were Lackey and Dempster in the rotation.
And more.
And the 2018 team had its share of that too: Moreland, Nunez, Pearce, Price, with the immortal Hector Velazquez in the bullpen.
The point is that they've always brought in these kinds of players. We remember them fondly because they won or did something special, but the philosophy hasn't really changed I don't think. They give out some big contracts, sometimes to players that make us scratch our heads. And they don't give out big contracts to some players we think they SHOULD be giving them to. And then they scour the league to find guys they can use to field a (hopefully) competent MLB team.
What excites me is the pipeline of really good young talent that this particular management group has assembled. I can clearly envision in the not too distant future (like, within a couple of years) an ongoing stream of stars in the making arriving from Portland and Worcester. Players we will fall in love with. Players who will do special things on the field in a Red Sox uniform.
We aren't there YET. But that's what Chaim is building. And as frustrating as it is to see the Sox flounder here and now and lose players I love, that's always been how it goes, ever since I can remember being a Red Sox fan (and couldn't understand losing Lynn and Fisk).
Now, I'm not you, and I'm not suggesting you should feel the same way I do. You feel how you feel. I don't love looking up at the Yankees, Rays, Jays, and Orioles in the division, but I can see what they're doing here and what they're building gives ME excitement and something to look forward to as a Sox fan. This organization - specifically this ownership group - has given me more than I ever could have imagined as a Sox fan, and I'm fine with the building process taking a little time. The Astros are a juggernaut but they endured a lot of lean years to get there. The Braves now look like a machine, but they were pretty awful from 2014-2017. I'm looking forward to what this team will become. I wish that was NOW, but I am ok with it not being NOW. We'll get there again.