- 12 hours ago
ESPN’s Buster Onley joined the show and reported that Red Sox ownership is getting involved in trade talks and making phone calls to other teams while trying to secure a right handed bat!
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00:00But if you want answers, you go straight to the guy who's at the top, the top of the totem
00:05pole when it comes to insiders, and that is Buster Only from ESPN, and we are lucky enough to have
00:09him on with us right now.
00:10Buster, thanks for coming on with us today.
00:13Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:14I appreciate the words.
00:17I would dispute that, but we move on to the Red Sox.
00:20Absolutely, Buster.
00:21All right, so let's get right to a report that you came out with last week.
00:25That is that the Boston Red Sox are aggressively seeking an impact right-hander, a right-handed hitter on the
00:30trade market.
00:32Can you kind of expand on that and tell us a little bit more about what you know?
00:36Yeah, so this is what I'm getting from other teams, that generally speaking, there isn't a lot of trade stuff
00:42going on.
00:43And in fact, when Sam Kennedy came on and said, hey, there's more trade talk than ever, there's a lot
00:51going on,
00:51and a rival executive actually called around thinking like, oh, man, I missed something.
00:57Like, what is going on?
00:59And when he checked into it, what he got back was the Red Sox are looking aggressively,
01:04and the Red Sox are kind of, you know, on their own in that regard.
01:08And then I heard last week from a couple teams that they were signaling that they're willing to take on
01:12money.
01:12Today I talked to someone who, with another team, who told me that it's to the degree that the Red
01:19Sox ownership has gotten involved,
01:21that they're actually, and I have not confirmed the name of the owner, so I'm not going to mention the
01:26name that I heard,
01:27but an owner actually, one of the Red Sox ownership group was actually calling around
01:32and trying to grease the skids to do something to add a right-handed bat, which, you know, all of
01:38it.
01:38Of course, they've gotten two reactions to all this from other teams.
01:41One, which is, why didn't you just offer Alex Bregman more money in the wintertime?
01:46Right, right.
01:46And the second thing was, and then the second reaction was like, man, they are desperate.
01:52Yeah.
01:52And does that surprise you, how aggressive they are being right now, Buster?
01:59It, yes.
02:00Yes.
02:01In one hand, it does, because of the fact that during the winter, it felt like that they, you know,
02:07thought that Durbin and some other, you know, additions were, that they were going to have an answer,
02:12that they would have a good offensive team.
02:14I know, I mean, when we looked at the Red Sox going into the season, the big question was,
02:19will they hit enough home runs?
02:21And it felt like that question was being asked everywhere, apparently, except within the Red Sox front office.
02:27I mean, the idea that we're sitting here today, you know, more than a third of the way through the
02:31season
02:32and a Red Sox team, you know, not, you know, a team that plays in the monster ballpark,
02:38but the Red Sox, 30th in home runs, 29th in runs, and 26th in slugging percentage.
02:44Look, all you have to do is look at the history of the Red Sox to know that is not
02:47typical.
02:48Oh, I know.
02:48And how can they be so bad offensively at home, at Fenway Park?
02:53It really is.
02:54And it's been just, I mean, they just hit double-digit wins, which is absolutely absurd a couple days ago.
03:00But when you talk about these right-handed hitters that could be on the trade market,
03:04are there any, like, any names come to mind who the Red Sox might be interested in?
03:09So, and I just want to make this clear.
03:11I don't have specific information that these players are available,
03:14but I know when I talk to folks with other teams, they're talking about,
03:18well, the Giants have, you know, Matt Chapman, who has a full no-trade, Willie Adamas.
03:24You know, people have said out loud to me, what about Bo Bichette,
03:28who's in the first year of a $126 million deal with the New York Mets?
03:31And it looks like, you know, it's possible the Mets will be headed toward some kind of midseason sale.
03:38It was interesting.
03:39Nolan Arenado was the third baseman that no one seemed to want when he was with the Cardinals,
03:44and now he's having a good year with the Diamondbacks.
03:46You know, at some point, does that conversation happen?
03:50Although Nolan, again, has full no-trade.
03:52I mean, there certainly are names available, especially if you're willing to take on a bad contract.
03:57But as you guys know, when you look at the standings,
04:00there are not a lot of teams that are just saying flat out, hey, we're out of it.
04:04And they're not going to trade.
04:06For example, the Detroit Tigers, other teams have called about Tarek Skubel.
04:10Is he going to be available? When is he going to be available?
04:12And the Tigers are five and a half games out of the wild card.
04:16They're telling other teams, we're not trading now.
04:18We're going to try to stay in this thing.
04:20Because the American League is so mediocre,
04:22I think that really is limiting any sort of player availability that we have so far.
04:27Buster, what do you think other teams are asking for from the Red Sox in return?
04:32And, you know, obviously the money could factor in on that as well.
04:35But do you think the prices are super high right now?
04:40Yes, but I can't tell you for sure if the Red Sox have gotten that far,
04:44if I'm making sense, that, you know, other teams, let's say they called, you know,
04:50on an expensive player on another team, the response to the other team might simply be this time of year,
04:55we're not ready to talk about it.
04:56So I don't know if the, you know, if the Red Sox have actually gotten far enough along
05:01where other teams are saying, you know, we'll engage you and we're willing to talk about,
05:07you know, prospect A, B, or C.
05:09I have got nothing that it's that far along.
05:12All I've heard so to this point is that the Red Sox are being aggressive in trying to find some
05:18help.
05:18And, as I mentioned, indicating willingness to take on money.
05:23Buster, when Alex Cora, when Breslow let go of Alex Cora at the end of April,
05:28did you see that as a sign that if Breslow's going down, he's going to go down doing it his
05:34way?
05:34How did you see that firing at end of April?
05:38It was about compliance.
05:40I don't think you can read it any other way that, you know, Craig wanted control.
05:45And I know he's pushed back on that notion, but, you know, you heard stories about, you know,
05:51Alex not necessarily embracing everything that the front office was taking to him,
05:55that the coaching staff, Jason Veritek, they weren't embracing everything the coaching staff was coming to them.
06:00And maybe, you know, given the fact that the Red Sox were off to a bad start,
06:05you know, Craig might have looked at that as, well, you know what,
06:08if we're going to dig our way out of this thing, then we're going to need a compliant staff.
06:13And we have what we have.
06:15And I was thinking about this today before I got ready to talk, as I got ready to talk to
06:18you guys,
06:19I just remember, you know, talking to folks in the Yankees organization during that postseason series last year
06:25and them talking about, man, this Red Sox team, it's going to be a beast going forward.
06:31You got Crochet, you got Roman Anthony, you've got, you know, one of the most respected managers in baseball.
06:37It looks like they have some young players and they're taking a big step forward.
06:40And instead, where we are now, when you really look at it, they have a team that's, you know,
06:46one of the worst offensively, which, you know, you're not going to win with a Red Sox team that's like
06:51that.
06:52You have a team that, generally speaking, I think you guys would agree with me, they're hard to watch.
06:57They don't score a lot of runs and they fired one of the most respected managers in baseball.
07:03That's a list of accomplishments for a third of the season.
07:06It's strange.
07:07We talk to Chad Tracy every week and, you know, he obviously seems to be doing his best and he
07:12seems like a good guy.
07:13I just, I can't, I don't envy the situation he was put in, like thrown into the middle of.
07:19Are you getting any kind of source from, or any kind of sense rather, from people that you've spoken with
07:24as to what the environment is like right now inside the Red Sox organization?
07:30What?
07:32Terrible.
07:33Wow.
07:33It's not hard to tap into unhappiness in that organization where, you know, whether it's people have been fired or
07:40people have been asked to take pay cuts or the current handling of the coaching staff.
07:44And I've been trying to, you know, find any comparable in my time covering baseball to the situation we have
07:50now.
07:50And I want to make this clear.
07:52It might be that privately Craig has given assurance to Chad Tracy that he's on for the rest of the
07:57year.
07:57And maybe he's given private assurance to the coaching staff that they're on for the rest of the year, but
08:03we don't have any indication that's the case.
08:05And so what I've been calling around other teams is, can you imagine being a coach essentially on an NBA
08:1310-day contract?
08:15And, you know, if things aren't going well, you might lose your job.
08:20It's ridiculous.
08:21Like, I don't know how that group of people, you know, move forward because you think about it.
08:26Do you get an apartment?
08:28Do you, you know, do you live in a hotel?
08:30How do you arrange housing?
08:32Do you invite your kids, your family to come join you?
08:35All that stuff when you're on an interim contract.
08:37And, again, maybe that privately has been taken care of.
08:41It's not that expensive.
08:42Some GMs with other teams have said it probably would cost the Red Sox about $1.2 million to guarantee
08:48this current staff that they're going to work through the end of the year.
08:51But as far as we know, they haven't even done that.
08:54It's kind of insane.
08:55Yeah, what a weird environment to be in.
08:57Where do you think that comes from?
08:59Is that a Breslow?
09:01Do you think it's a Breslow call or do you believe that that would be ownership?
09:05Well, I mean, in the end, it's, you know, the bus stops here with Craig, right?
09:10He's the guy in charge right now, head of baseball operations.
09:13That situation is something that I know there have been other general managers that I've covered in that in a
09:19similar situation.
09:20They would go into ownership and say, hey, you know what, for the sake of the people involved, let's take
09:25care of them through the end of the year.
09:26And by the way, that doesn't preclude you for making moves.
09:30You know, and Chad Tracy is someone who's very respected within the industry.
09:35People think that long term he's going to manage in the big leagues, whether it continues with the Red Sox
09:40or other teams.
09:43But you just think about where they are, you know, day by day.
09:48And if they want to make changes during the course of the year, guaranteeing the staff financially through the end
09:54of the year would not preclude that.
09:56Right. You could tell Chad Tracy, you're the guy through the rest of the year.
10:00And then if mid-September, you know, John McGraw pops up and you want to hire him to be your
10:05manager, you can still do that.
10:07By the way, Buster, who do you think they would be interested in?
10:10Are there any name managers out there that are sort of waiting in the wings that they might want to
10:15take a look at?
10:16No, I don't have any specific names yet.
10:19And I guess the big question, because everyone is wondering, with this being such a disaster, you know, what's going
10:24to happen with Craig?
10:25And I know at the time that Alex was let go, you know, I asked people, how does John Henry
10:31feel about Craig?
10:32Because that, in the end, especially within the Red Sox organization, where it always feels like it's Games of Thrones,
10:39you know, I was told that John really likes Craig.
10:42But we've seen, with Ben Charrington, with Dave Nabrowski, with Heim Bloom, that can turn in a minute.
10:49And if you wind up getting a lot of empty seats at Fenway Park and there continues to be unhappiness
10:55about that team, who knows what's going to happen.
10:57And, Buster, that Theo Epstein criticism kind of came out of nowhere, too, didn't it?
11:04It did.
11:05And, look, I mean, Theo's a smart guy, and he has to have known how this was going to land.
11:13And I can't, I haven't talked to him, so I don't know exactly what the intention was there.
11:19But it certainly got a lot of people's attention around the sport, especially because there's a belief within the industry
11:24that, you know, Craig was Theo's hand-picked guy.
11:26And that when they went through the interview process, it wasn't like they had an exhaustive search where they talked
11:33to 100 people.
11:34The presumption is that Craig was someone that Theo wanted.
11:37And what is the likelihood, do you believe, that there could be a chance that Craig doesn't make it through
11:42the season?
11:44I don't have anything that suggests that that's going to be the case.
11:49But, I mean, the speculation is all over the place, and I get asked about it by other teams all
11:53the time.
11:53Wow, that is wild.
11:54Well, listen, the one thing I can say is this team may be bad, but, my God, it is filled
11:59with drama.
12:00But, you know, between everything that's going on with, like, what you were talking of and Brian Baio not being
12:05able to start a game and getting sent down, it has just been nonstop there, Buster.
12:10Buster, I'm curious, have you ever seen anything like that, what's going on with Brian Baio, where he needed basically
12:15a starter in front of him to pitch well?
12:20Have you ever seen anything in the past where a team had to do something similar like that?
12:25So, the closest thing that I can say that I covered, and it wasn't actually with a pitcher, but when
12:30something mental like that comes in, it was Chuck Knobloch with the Yankees, where he had the yips.
12:37He was a gold glove second baseman when they got him, and something infected him, right?
12:41That thought, that doubt, that was pretty incredible.
12:47And it's going to be interesting to see how they handle it going forward, because that's not an easy thing.
12:52I do wonder if at some point it would be good for him to have conversations with folks like Ricky
12:57and Kiel, who dealt with those sort of mental hurdles.
13:00Lastly, Buster, any real fire to the smoke about Cattell Marte?
13:04Could that be a match here with Boston?
13:07Man, the Diamondbacks are trying to win, right?
13:09And Cattell Marte is as hot as there has been.
13:12During the wintertime, as you guys know, the Diamondbacks went into the offseason saying, yeah, we're willing to talk about
13:19Marte.
13:20And they talked to another team.
13:22And then Mike Hazen, in January, basically understanding the need for stability, said, we're not trading Cattell Marte.
13:30I reached out to folks today to ask that question, and what I got back was, Diamondbacks are not trading
13:36Marte.
13:36Well, Buster, only great stuff.
13:39I mean, this is – I have a lot to unpack from what you just told us, so we may
13:44take the next break doing that.
13:46But, Buster, thank you so much for calling, and we love having you on.
13:50Absolutely.
13:50Thanks for having me, guys.
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