How do you balance Crochet staying fresh/healthy and letting him continue to pitch?

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How do you balance Crochet staying fresh/healthy and letting him continue to pitch? Red Sox President and CEO Sam Kennedy joins! Does Boston now have a firm plan at 1B? Devers still a possibility? How was the meeting in KC?

Transcript

00:00who joins us this week hey sam hey good morning guys how you doing i'm doing great we're uh we're

00:08hanging in there yeah hanging in there and we were uh earlier uh earlier during they said it we

00:16uh talked a little bit about garrett crochet who uh was uh was very kind and generous toward

00:23uh front office and and alex cora uh when it came to uh being yanked last night i i i wanted to ask you

00:32about that balance because you got a guy who is uh as wiggy said earlier dealing and has been dealing

00:39and wants to wants to stay in there uh how do you guys balance that with uh the the the fact that

00:47it is a long season and you need him uh hopefully well into the fall yes it's really hard because

00:54he just said it he's he's dealing and in the moment you know he's looking the way he looks and then

01:00you make a decision that is really rooted in sort of the overall best health of the team but it's

01:05those are the hard decisions that um that our guys have to make night in and night out we're preparing

01:11for for 162 but you know in the moment you know you certainly don't want to see a guy like that come

01:18out of the game when he's when he's doing what he's doing but obviously everybody knows he he has

01:22not pitched um uh a full slate of games uh over 162 and you know he's so strong and and young and

01:32building up we just got to make sure everybody stays healthy but it's it's hard baseball in the

01:37moment is uh is is really hard but you got to think about the the the next several weeks as well

01:43it's a difficult balance sam i think a lot of media and fans tried to paint a picture that crochet was

01:49upset with with what happened last night obviously we heard from him he didn't seem upset but there's

01:54a bigger narrative around this red sox team right now that there might be a communication issue whether

01:58it was with rafi devers and and john henry having to fly out to talk to him what would you say to fans

02:03that think that right now where we stand well i actually think we have um a lot of uh great open

02:11honest candid conversations i think the the narrative is probably more accurate to say there's a lot of

02:17frustration right now um i don't think anybody including our our fan base thinks this is a 500 team

02:23um it's not not acceptable not what we um anticipated coming out of fort myers expectations internally

02:32externally we're a lot higher so um when that happens when you fall short of expectations in

02:38the early going i totally understand that you can point to different different reasons um but the

02:44reality is we're just we're just not getting it done yet but we got a lot of confidence that

02:48this group is um is built to do a lot better than 500 and we got to get going we got to start winning

02:53some series that's the key thing uh and and start to start to push as we get into june

02:59and i know you're not craig breslow you're not alex cora but just from your perspective

03:04what primarily god primarily what is driving that uh that not being where you thought you might be at

03:15this point well we just haven't um we sort of feel like we haven't clicked quite yet and we've shown

03:23signs of it um you know we had a we had that long friday night game in kansas city and and it was

03:29frustrating and you know we had all those one run losses um to start the season it sort of felt like

03:37all right we're gonna kick things into gear here we we win that series in kansas city and then all of a

03:43sudden we have that awful series in detroit where we just got we just got swept it was it was tough and

03:48then um tough brave series coming back we we win the series against the mets um that we're just

03:54coming off of so that's a good sign but it just doesn't feel like we're clicking on all cylinders um

04:00but i do believe this is a group that uh that will start to click and uh and we'll get going here but

04:06there's there's been a lot there's been times when the bullpen has looked absolutely elite time when

04:11we struggle times we struggled on the bases times we've uh taken that extra base and and really put

04:18pressure on the defense with with with our with our speed and youth um so it's just kind of been up

04:24and down we just haven't found our groove yet but uh but hopefully we will and no better time as i

04:29say when the calendar starts to turn to june sam did you guys underestimate the impact of

04:35bregman coming in this offseason and being the third baseman as it relates to the chemistry in the

04:40in rafael devers uh well he's been he's been outstanding i mean the play on the field

04:47obviously speaks for itself but his leadership has been has been tremendous and um just a

04:53incredible addition so um it's been it's been just what the doctor ordered and really really glad that

05:00we have alex bregman uh in our lineup but i was asking specifically about the reaction to his addition

05:06did you guys maybe expect a reaction that didn't come to fruition when it came to what it meant for

05:14devers and his his roster spot um no i think look when we're we have a job to do here and let's do

05:22everything in our power to improve the team through um through player development um through trades

05:30through signings um and that's that's exactly what we did we went out and got a uh a gold glover and

05:36a big bat big right hand a bat which is what we needed and um we're we're focused this offseason on

05:42doing everything we could to improve the team and and we absolutely did that by by adding ellis

05:47bregman sam when did it change the mindset of like innings pitch that starting pitches will go because

05:55is it an analytics thing or is it something more of a training staff thing that these guys now like

06:02a quality start is you know like four or five innings where it used to be seven yeah it's a good

06:09question we i mean that each pitcher it's pretty extraordinary has a plan that goes back to um the

06:15offseason late october november all the way through spring training and then into the seasons um there's a

06:23a whole workload that's mapped out and the number one goal is to keep guys healthy and we've seen

06:30just this explosion of injuries in baseball and especially related to pitchers we all know um you

06:38know guys learning that that missing bats is valued in the big leagues and going with max velocity max spin

06:46rate um has created an environment where guys do get hurt and so what we have to do is try to

06:52have guys miss bats but also stay healthy and stay off of the il so it's it's been a an industry

07:01problem um and and we're all working to try and make sure that uh when you have a guy at the top of

07:08the rotation you do everything you can to keep him healthy so it's been going on the last the last

07:13several years um and something that everyone across baseball is is tackling and no one's found the golden

07:18ticket or solution to the issue but uh the team that stays the healthiest usually is going to be

07:25there in the end as we sit here on may 22nd do you guys have a firm final plan when it comes to first

07:32base no i mean right now we're you know you've seen um guys like abraham toro and nick so guard and

07:39romey stepping up and guys are starting to work out there there's been a lot of conversations internally

07:46externally just thinking about solutions and those conversations continue so no firm uh plan um most

07:54importantly we just got to try and run a group out there every night that's gonna gonna win ball

07:58games did you feel like uh we haven't had the chance to talk to you sam um since it happened did

08:04you feel like the trip to kansas city with john henry and yourself was um productive and what what was

08:11your goal in your trip and do you feel like it's been satisfied yeah i i i do chris it was it was a

08:18really good trip i mean the purpose was to go out um and and make sure that we had a chance to visit

08:25with different members of the team and the staff and just reinforce the expectations from the very very

08:31top of the organization it was john henry's um idea to to go out there and have a few different

08:38conversations which we'll keep internal but it was a very clear candid message about our expectations

08:46about our commitment to winning um and and it was a really good visit and and i'm glad that we did it

08:53you know it was um important point in the season albeit early um we have an extreme sense of urgency uh

09:02we we have over these last couple of decades around winning and john just wanted to express that

09:08message to to the players and had several good conversations is it safe to say sam that devers

09:14is going to stay at dh it's not going to be a first base situation for him we'll continue to work through

09:21it cordy no no firm decisions are made um i think the most important thing is that um he continues to

09:28do what he's what he's doing in the middle of the lineup and um but look everyone everyone needs to

09:33do what what what's in the best interest of the team and um most importantly that's you know getting

09:39getting the best out of everybody including offensive production um you know making a move

09:45from whether it's third base to first base or dh to first base it's it's not the not the easiest

09:52thing in the world but um we're all um pushing towards the same goal of getting getting everyone ready

09:58to to be where they need to be to to win games and um that's what we need to do but rafi's you know

10:04the guy is world series champion he's been in that clubhouse longer than anybody part of the red sox

10:10family we've known him since he was literally uh a teenage kid and uh really really support him um and

10:19also it's good to have on it honest indirect conversations that um you know just probably best

10:25to have face to face um we are well aware that wiggy is easy to buy off it just it uh cost you a bag of

10:35merch at spring training a couple years ago i have have a co-worker here who quite frankly i am tired

10:42of listening to wine on the radio i'm sorry greg uh not you in this case okay uh with regard to the

10:51new city connects um my guy uh rich keith did not get one uh is it possible that we could uh shut him

11:01up by getting a jersey over here the new the new the new city connects we'll have to go back and scan

11:08the last 10 years of comments that rich keith has made about the club but assuming those all check out

11:15and the positive scale then no no problem okay i'm guessing probably what is he a large and then

11:21he could just stop whining about it yeah other people have them at the radio station i'm sure

11:24he'll just steal one if he doesn't get it so

11:26those are 225 dollars the city connect jerseys i was looking at one

11:34wiggy i'm sure the feedback is huge on those right sam

11:39yeah well they've been really really popular and and um kudos to to the team and our group

11:47internally for putting it all together i met the people from nike that uh that did the design and

11:53literally they've been working on them for three years it's pretty extraordinary what goes into it

11:57but yeah they came out great and and frankly a lot less controversial than you know i always think

12:03there's going to be i guess i'm a kind of old school you know red sox home whites and road

12:08gray is kind of person and then you realize like these are not for you know not not for those of

12:14us who've been around for a long time it's about connecting nike nike's new uniforms to the city

12:20um and the ballpark and and um they've been extremely popular especially with young fans and

12:26and that's the goal so i'm glad people like them and uh and you'll you'll see this uh practice continue

12:32all right well thanks for taking the time we will we will talk to you again soon

12:37and hopefully you are playing baseball in weather that is above 50 degrees or whatever it was

12:43yesterday yeah yeah welcome to memorial day weekend in new england right unbelievable all right sam

12:49thank you thanks guys all right all right take care sam kennedy

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