Worst offseasons in Red Sox history

[grimshaw]

The Red Sox made the following major league acquisitions this offseason:
Hanigan = .5 = $3,500,000
Leon = -.2 $510,400
Sandoval = -.7 $17,600,000
Ramirez = -.7 = $19,750,000
Miley = 1.3 = $3.666,667 traded for de La Rosa (.2) and Webster (-.6)
Porcello .2 $12,500,000
Masterson .1 = $9,500,000
Varvaro .1 = $576.500
Ross Jr -.1 = $566,500
Ogando -.5 = $1,500,000
= $69,670,067
 
What has that nearly 70 million gotten them to this point?  Exactly replacement level play.
The sole winners have been both the trade and contract signed by Wade Miley, and Ryan Hanigan who has barely had 100 at bats.
Their two highest paid players have also been their worst.  Their 3rd highest player is 39 and is performing like he's 39.  There are no injuries to blame the performances on other than Hanigan's broken knuckle and Hanley's collision with the wall.
And Rick Porcello hasn't even started his extension yet, never mind the fact that Cespedes has been performing like an all-star in the meantime.
 
From a short term view (first year after signings/acquisitions) is this the worst offseason in Red Sox history?

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

1980/81. Traded Lynn and Burleson in separate deals for a broken-down Frank Tanana, two years of Carney Lansford (which then resulted in a couple of years of Tony Armas), and a washed-up Joe Rudi. Then they let Fisk walk away for nothing.

 

[Toe Nash]

1919-20 was a little worse. Just a bit.

 

[nolasoxfan]

1980/81. Traded Lynn and Burleson in separate deals for a broken-down Frank Tanana, two years of Carney Lansford (which then resulted in a couple of years of Tony Armas), and a washed-up Joe Rudi. Then they let Fisk walk away for nothing.

The 1980/1981 offseason broke my young heart.  My three favorite players kicked to the curb like last night’s dinner garbage.  To be honest, I lost interest until 1986, only to have my heart broken again.  Such is baseball...

Edit:  Edited for clarity.

 

[redsoxstiff]

Haywood Sullivan . the definition of shit walking...

 

[MuzzyField]

This offseason broke my young heart.  My three favorite players kicked to the curb like last night’s dinner garbage.  To be honest, I lost interest until 1986, only to have my heart broken again.  Such is baseball...

So true, the 80/81 offseason was crushing.  Youth lost to the business and ineptitude that can be professional sports.  
 
The only thing missing from that offseason was Taps playing on a loop.
 
Breaking up the Gold Dust Twins and discarding the heart, sole, guts, and BALLS of the franchise... ineptitude defined. 

 

[Al Zarilla]

This offseason broke my young heart.  My three favorite players kicked to the curb like last night’s dinner garbage.  To be honest, I lost interest until 1986, only to have my heart broken again.  Such is baseball...

Guessing Lester, and maybe Lackey and ???

 

[BosRedSox5]

The 1992/93 offseason was pretty bad, wasn't it? Wade Boggs was let go in favor of Scott Cooper. Boggs racked up 3 straight 4+ WAR years with 2 Gold Gloves. His 4th year was a minor dip in value when he put up a 3+ WAR. The hated Yankees got marvelous value out of him and won a championship.
 
The team let Ellis Burks walk and replaced him with Billy Hatcher. Burks went on to play for 11 more years and be a really dependable role player.
 
The Sox also signed Scott Fletcher (surprisingly good for one season) and Andre Dawson.
 
Then they traded away Phil Plantier for Jose Melendez which seemed good at the time... but Melendez inexplicably flamed out and Plantier hit 34 homers for the Padres the next season.

 

[jscola85]

It's also important to note that on top of the tire fire that has been Rick Porcello's season, the guy we traded to get him (Yoenis Cespedes) has posted a .289/.314/.482 line and is on pace for a 4.5-5 WAR season; the other guy in the deal (Wilson) has a 2.03 ERA in 48 IP for the Tigers as well.
 
Even with Miley, the guy the Sox traded (RDLR) has basically produced at the same level as Miley and the team had more years of control over Rubby.
 
Just about the only good thing this management group did was to not trade Betts and Swihart for Hamels, as Mookie has been about as good as advertised with a lot more growth potential going forward, and Swihart showed at least a level of competency in the majors once he settled into an everyday role in MLB.

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

The 1990 offseason was pretty bad. Good ol' Lou Gorman decided to open the purse strings and splurged on some big name free agents for the upcoming 1991 season. Their names were:
 
Jack Clark
Danny Darwin 
Matt Young
 
Clark was okay for 1991 (he had 28 bombs) but Darwin and Young each had 5.16 and 5.18 ERAs.
 
Dewey and Marty Barrett were also released this year (thought Barrett's brother Tommy was signed), Tom Brunansky was resigned and Mike Marshall was acquired. Larry Andersen also left that offseason. 
 
You may recall that Larry Andersen was traded for a third base prospect stuck behind Scott Cooper and Tim Naehring. 
 
This was a terrible, terrible team to root for. 

 

[BosRedSox5]

The 1990 offseason was pretty bad. Good ol' Lou Gorman decided to open the purse strings and splurged on some big name free agents for the upcoming 1991 season. Their names were:
 
Jack Clark
Danny Darwin 
Matt Young
 
Clark was okay for 1991 (he had 28 bombs) but Darwin and Young each had 5.16 and 5.18 ERAs.
 
Dewey and Marty Barrett were also released this year (thought Barrett's brother Tommy was signed), Tom Brunansky was resigned and Mike Marshall was acquired. Larry Andersen also left that offseason. 
 
You may recall that Larry Andersen was traded for a third base prospect stuck behind Scott Cooper and Tim Naehring. 
 
This was a terrible, terrible team to root for. 

 
Maybe it's because I was 7 years old in 1991, and I played tons of games of Strat-o-Matic with that roster but I remember them with incredible fondness.
 
Darwin got hurt that season and went on to pitch pretty well in 92 and 93 before ending on a low note in 94. Young was never really healthy either but given his track record, Gorman should have known that.

 

[RIFan]

1980/81. Traded Lynn and Burleson in separate deals for a broken-down Frank Tanana, two years of Carney Lansford (which then resulted in a couple of years of Tony Armas), and a washed-up Joe Rudi. Then they let Fisk walk away for nothing.

That offseason was devastating.  Sullivan deliberately mailed contracts late to both Fisk and Lynn so that they didn't have to go to arbitration.  Link is to an AP article after the Lynn trade. 
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19810123&id=O7YlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T_MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=880,1026607&hl=en 

 

[fineyoungarm]

1980/81. Traded Lynn and Burleson in separate deals for a broken-down Frank Tanana, two years of Carney Lansford (which then resulted in a couple of years of Tony Armas), and a washed-up Joe Rudi. Then they let Fisk walk away for nothing.

 

 
I still have sharp chest pains and need to take a
nitroglycerin pill.

 

[nolasoxfan]

Guessing Lester, and maybe Lackey and ???

Well played.  I should have written ‘that’ or ‘The 1980/1981.'

 

[BosRedSox5]

That offseason was devastating.  Sullivan deliberately mailed contracts late to both Fisk and Lynn so that they didn't have to go to arbitration.  Link is to an AP article after the Lynn trade. 
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19810123&id=O7YlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T_MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=880,1026607&hl=en 

 
I've never really understood what happened. I mean... Lynn and Fisk were Sox heroes right? Lynn was 28 and still a really productive player. In hindsight he was absolutely robbed for the 1979 MVP award. Apart from a couple hiccups he went on to be really productive until his last couple years. Why did the Sox want to get rid of him again? 

Fisk was somewhat more understandable since he was 32... but still. He was a run producer at a position where defense was at a premium. No one could have predicted he'd play until he was 45 and have a resurgence in his early 40's where he'd rattle off 2.5 really good seasons in a row... surely though they could have predicted he'd earn another contract. Was 5 years at 2.9 million a lot back then? In those 5 years he was an All-Star 3 times and produced a ton of value for the White Sox. 

I really can't imagine what was going on at the time. 

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

The Sox FO didn't want to pay them. Free agency was still in its infancy and Sullivan didn't fully understand the marketplace.

 

[RIFan]

You would have to have lived through the Sullivan / Laroux era (error?) to understand. It was all about the money and the lack of desire to pay. It's hard to understand knowing what a cash cow the Sox are today, but those 2 clowns were such shitty business men as well as piss poor baseball executives that the Sox were hamstrung financially.

 

[dcmissle]

The Red Sox FO was run by a-holes egged on by the Boston media, print media especially. The temerity of those players who wanted to be paid.

A similar dynamic played out around that time with first rate players on the Patriots, hall of fame caliber guys in some instances who went to the Raiders.

 

[Troy O'Lovely]

1980/81. Traded Lynn and Burleson in separate deals for a broken-down Frank Tanana, two years of Carney Lansford (which then resulted in a couple of years of Tony Armas), and a washed-up Joe Rudi. Then they let Fisk walk away for nothing.

 
Yes, but without Tony Armas they likely wouldn't have had Tony Armas, Jr. and hence they can't trade him for Pedro in 1997 so... take the long view and that trade worked out.

 

[Fireball Fred]

IIRC the specific situation in 80-81 had to do with taxes -- it was advantageous to take money out that year. Gammons wrote a book (Beyond the Sixth Game) about that period.

 

[Sampo Gida]

Technically we should include the Lackey for Craig and Kelly trade as part of the 2014/2015 offseason.
 
Yeah, sorry, this is easily the worst offseason in my 50+ years of following the team.  Despite losing Lynn, Fisk and Burleson in the 1980/1981 offseason the team actually improved in 1981, which was a strike shortened season, although C, CF and SS were definitely downgraded
 
Lansford, Miller. Clear, Rudi . Tanana accounted for 5.3 WAR in 1981 and the big 3 we lost had 7.4 bWAR (4.8 bWAR excluding Fisk) in 1981 thanks to a career year by Burleson and a solid year by Fisk that offset Lynns tough year with an injury.   The trades/losses were a net loser but the team maintained financial flexibility and upgraded overall. Fisk was the big loss here and that was just a FU, not part of a "plan"
 
This past offseason not only killed the team in 2015, but the signings of Porcello, Hanley and Pablo will impact the financial flexibility of the team in the next couple of seasons
 
But 2012/2013 offseason (that included the big trade with the Dodgers at the tail end fo 2012) was one of the top 5 offseasons. Regressions a bitch.

 

[Humphrey]

That offseason was devastating.  Sullivan deliberately mailed contracts late to both Fisk and Lynn so that they didn't have to go to arbitration.  Link is to an AP article after the Lynn trade. 
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19810123&id=O7YlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=T_MFAAAAIBAJ&pg=880,1026607&hl=en 

What a reprehensable ownership/management team.     And the quotes from Houk make it pretty clear he agreed to take the bullet for all their cheapass moves.

 

[Humphrey]

IIRC the specific situation in 80-81 had to do with taxes -- it was advantageous to take money out that year. Gammons wrote a book (Beyond the Sixth Game) about that period.

It was a strange time.   Yawkey died in 1976, but it seemed like it took 7-8 years for his widow to end up being the principal owner. 

 

[Fireball Fred]

Jean Y basically turned the team over to Sullivan and Leroux (such nice young men!) and was only persuaded to step in again after they utterly discredited themselves.

 

[Pumpsie]

The Red Sox made the following major league acquisitions this offseason:
Hanigan = .5 = $3,500,000
Leon = -.2 $510,400
Sandoval = -.7 $17,600,000
Ramirez = -.7 = $19,750,000
Miley = 1.3 = $3.666,667 traded for de La Rosa (.2) and Webster (-.6)
Porcello .2 $12,500,000
Masterson .1 = $9,500,000
Varvaro .1 = $576.500
Ross Jr -.1 = $566,500
Ogando -.5 = $1,500,000
= $69,670,067
 
What has that nearly 70 million gotten them to this point?  Exactly replacement level play.
The sole winners have been both the trade and contract signed by Wade Miley, and Ryan Hanigan who has barely had 100 at bats.
Their two highest paid players have also been their worst.  Their 3rd highest player is 39 and is performing like he's 39.  There are no injuries to blame the performances on other than Hanigan's broken knuckle and Hanley's collision with the wall.
And Rick Porcello hasn't even started his extension yet, never mind the fact that Cespedes has been performing like an all-star in the meantime.
 
From a short term view (first year after signings/acquisitions) is this the worst offseason in Red Sox history?

Besides all these poor decisions, we have what led up to it.  The awful no-reason Lackey trade when you could have had Lackey pitching for the vet minimum this year.  The decision not to sign Lester to an extension at what you ended up giving Porcello.  The dumbest decision, IMO, was not signing Miller to what the Yanks gave him, giving us a bullpen that was weaker than our sorry rotation, and with no reliable lefty reliever anywhere in the organization.  That was totally braindead.

 

[MuzzyField]

Jean Y basically turned the team over to Sullivan and Leroux (such nice young men!) and was only persuaded to step in again after they utterly discredited themselves.

Did the looming next chapter in the labor wars play any role in the Sox handling of this offseason?

 

[Devizier]

The 1992/93 offseason was pretty bad, wasn't it? Wade Boggs was let go in favor of Scott Cooper. Boggs racked up 3 straight 4+ WAR years with 2 Gold Gloves. His 4th year was a minor dip in value when he put up a 3+ WAR. The hated Yankees got marvelous value out of him and won a championship.
 
The team let Ellis Burks walk and replaced him with Billy Hatcher. Burks went on to play for 11 more years and be a really dependable role player.
 
The Sox also signed Scott Fletcher (surprisingly good for one season) and Andre Dawson.
 
Then they traded away Phil Plantier for Jose Melendez which seemed good at the time... but Melendez inexplicably flamed out and Plantier hit 34 homers for the Padres the next season.

 
I was just about to mention this.
 
Switching out Burks for Hatcher was what I remembered most, because Burks was my favorite as a kid. And fuck did Hatcher suck, although they acquired him before the offseason.

 

[Plympton91]

Besides all these poor decisions, we have what led up to it.  The awful no-reason Lackey trade when you could have had Lackey pitching for the vet minimum this year.  The decision not to sign Lester to an extension at what you ended up giving Porcello.  The dumbest decision, IMO, was not signing Miller to what the Yanks gave him, giving us a bullpen that was weaker than our sorry rotation, and with no reliable lefty reliever anywhere in the organization.  That was totally braindead.

 
Quoted for truth.
 

 
I was just about to mention this.
 
Switching out Burks for Hatcher was what I remembered most, because Burks was my favorite as a kid. And fuck did Hatcher suck, although they acquired him before the offseason.

 
The arguments for getting rid of Burks were the same as the arguments people are making about Buchholz now.  Only 2 seasons out of 6 with more than 133 games.  Obviously an injury-prone risk on a large contract. 

 

[Thelobsterroll]

Besides all these poor decisions, we have what led up to it.  The awful no-reason Lackey trade when you could have had Lackey pitching for the vet minimum this year.  The decision not to sign Lester to an extension at what you ended up giving Porcello.  The dumbest decision, IMO, was not signing Miller to what the Yanks gave him, giving us a bullpen that was weaker than our sorry rotation, and with no reliable lefty reliever anywhere in the organization.  That was totally braindead.

A few nit picks. Did Lester ever indicate there was a point at which he would accept 5/120? I know a lot was written about Lester and I might have missed that. I also think Miller needs to get through half of his contract before we can start berating Cherimgton for that. In hindsight I have a lot of issues with the trade deadline last year. At the time though it looked solid. This last offseason though was a bit of a head scratcher.

 

[BosRedSox5]

 
Quoted for truth.
 
 
The arguments for getting rid of Burks were the same as the arguments people are making about Buchholz now.  Only 2 seasons out of 6 with more than 133 games.  Obviously an injury-prone risk on a large contract. 

 
Right, but didn't he get a one year "prove it" deal with the White Sox? I mean, he was 28 years old, a gold glove winner and a pretty good offensive player. It's not like they even had a backup plan. Billy Hatcher, Bob Zupcic and Jeff McNeely were their centerfielders in 1993. We have the benefit of hindsight, and know that the Sox didn't have a stable CF until Johnny Damon took over, but didn't they know what young centerfielders who could hit were rare back then? 

 

[tims4wins]

Hatchet did steal home that one time, that was cool. Off Juan Guzman, I think?

I was at that game. My dad called it after seeing Hatcher take a big lead. High fives from everyone around us. One of my first Fenway memories as I was about 11

 

[WenZink]

 
.... the Sox didn't have a stable CF until Johnny Damon took over... 

 
Carl Everett just texted me and he's really pissed that you don't consider him stable!

 

[BosRedSox5]

 
Carl Everett just texted me and he's really pissed that you don't consider him stable!

 
I don't see how that's possible, Dino Carl doesn't believe in cell phones. 

 

[WenZink]

 
I don't see how that's possible, Dino Carl doesn't believe in cell phones. 

 
Carl has a Flinstone-model cell phone -- powered by a pterodactyl flapping it's wings.