Give Us a Reason to Believe: What the Red Sox Owe Their Fans This Winter

Fenway Park before a game, July 2023. Archive photo. Photo: JFK91726 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Original photograph; display framing may vary.

OPINION

I do not need the Red Sox to promise me a championship this winter. Nobody can make that promise honestly, and anyone who does should probably be selling something in a parking lot.

I would settle for a reason to believe that the organization understands the assignment.

That sounds like a modest request. It is also a different request from demanding a particular free agent or insisting that every dollar be spent immediately. Fans can disagree about the right transaction and still recognize whether a team is approaching its problems with sufficient urgency.

Earlier this week, I laid out what I want from the roster. This is about the people responsible for building it, and the standard they should expect us to apply.

No front office should negotiate in public. I do not expect Craig Breslow to distribute his trade proposals so the rest of us can edit them over breakfast.

But there is plenty of space between disclosing confidential conversations and saying nothing useful.

Tell us which parts of the team must improve. Tell us whether you believe an unresolved position needs an outside addition or a competition among the players already here. If the plan changes, explain the baseball reason once doing so no longer compromises a negotiation.

A clear objective gives fans something fair to evaluate. Vague language gives everyone room to claim success later, regardless of what actually happened.

The organization does not have to agree with my preferred solution. It should have a solution it can explain.

Roster construction belongs to the baseball department. The resources available to that department do not magically appear on their own.

Ownership should be willing…