Whatever the numbers are, John Henry has never changed the way he wants to run the team. He’s perfectly happy to spend up to the luxury tax cap in order to field a winner, and he will go over that cap if it sufficiently raises the probability of winning. But he’s not interested in spending for the sake of spending or in unnecessarily contributing to the profits of other teams that tank seasons in order to pocket revenue sharing. He’s been all anyone could ask for in an owner.
Reading between those lines, Henry, like me, doesn’t believe the Red Sox have a high probability of winning next season and so doesn’t want to send good money after bad again The bottom line is that their starting pitching staff is right now is in shambles, but will cost about $85 million and counting. You have a good #3 in Rodriguez. Other than that, you have Sale and Price dealing with serious injury issues, Sale coming off a terrible season for him even before he broke down for the third consecutive year, Price missed significant time for the 2nd time in 3 years, Eocaldi was neither healthy nor effective, and there’s one spot currently unfilled with not a single legitimate cheap internal option on the table. So, without blowing through all the luxury tax levels again or wishcasting full health and peak effectiveness from all three of Sale, Price, and Eocaldi, they still wouldn’t be as good as the Yankees.