If this is the direction you choose then you either...
A) Announce it from day one, take the initial PR hit and then show your intent by making the type of acquisitions that Breslow has made so far and continue to do so.
B) Be vague or misleading in your answers, delay the PR hit and in doing so be forced to relive it over and over.
If the trust of the fans matters at all then ownership needs to rethink their relationship with them.
Agreed. But I’ve been saying for a long time that it’s not the “cook” that matters, if the recipe is building a starting rotation on the fly each year of guys that will take one year deals and those are the only additions made, you’re going to stink. Doesn’t matter if it’s Bloom, Breslow or me picking them, it’s going to fail.
If that was FSG’s plan and the forced it on Bloom, shame on them.
If it was Bloom’s plan and he ”forced it” on their budget, shame on him.
I’m less pissed now than I was before, because nobody is trying to sell us on that approach actually being sound.
The good news - to me - is that Breslow has been in ”rebuild mode” at least in action, with every transaction he’s made, which is what should have been happening from mid 2022 to present. It shows the understanding that the way it was done wasn’t going to work, no matter who did it.
I said this before, and I meant it. I’m genuinely more confident in the 2025+ team now than I was before the comments today. I don’t know or pretend to know who from FSG or the FO actually thought they could contend in the AL East in an extreme hitter’s park with only one year dumpster diving, and changing it up every year. This at least shows - or implies to me - that they’re going to stop doing it.
Either sign real players to real contracts or develop a player from the system to take a shot (or, I don’t think Winckowski can start in Fenway Park in the AL East, but there is at least a chance he could and be a core piece, no shot Mike Lorenzen is going to be a core piece though, even if he might be a bit better in 2024).
Case in point, I believe a rotation of Bello, Giolito, Crawford, Pivetta and one of Whitlock, Houck, Winckowski is going to get routinely slaughtered. However, I also think there is a chance you might find one more long term starter there. Replacing any of them with Paxton, Ryu, Lorenzen types was also going to get slaughtered while reducing the chance of finding which one (or more or any) of Gio, Crawford, Houck or Winckowski can be legit building blocks. Better to go 74-88 and see what you have than 80-82 and just kick the can to next year’s dumpster diving.
Same with the outfielders (but make the names Duran, Abreu and Rafaela vs Duvall, Soler, etc).
Now - follow through and move a fully paid for Jansen, Martin and (if not extended Pivetta) and go from there.