The Boston Red Sox are coming off a terribly disappointing 84-win 2019 campaign, one year after hoisting the World Series trophy.
It led to Boston moving on from front office head Dave Dombrowski. We’re also expecting a major shake-up of the team’s roster this winter.
In what has to be considered a tone-deaf approach, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy noted on Monday that the team will look to cut its payroll.
“A day after the $240-million team finished with just 84 wins, Kennedy said it’s a goal, not a mandate’ to get the payroll under $208 million for 2020,” Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald noted.
Kennedy also confirmed that the Red Sox are once again going to raise ticket prices next season.
“We’ve had a pretty consistent approach to ticket pricing the last five years,” he said. “Low single digits and cost of living inflationary increases. We haven’t made a decision for 2020 but I would anticipate another modest increase.”
A lower payroll coupled with higher ticket prices in a Major League Baseball world that saw the 2019 season field a 16-year low in terms of attendance. That makes a whole lot of sense.
Kennedy knows Fenway Park’s lore. He also knows how much die-hard Bostonian’s love their Red Sox. It’s the perfect storm for gauging as this team falls further behind the hated New York Yankees in the American League East.
On the field, this means that Boston could very well look to trade reigning AL MVP Mookie Betts to meet its payroll goals. That’s also going to go over well in Beantown.