Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy on locking up young talent this winter: ‘I think it’s really important’
The Red Sox have a lot to do this winter in the efforts to fix the major league roster. Despite the external pieces needed to help put a competitive club on the field in 2024 and beyond, the club is focused on extending young talent.
Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy was a guest on MassLive’s Fenway Rundown Podcast and talked the importance of trying to lock up the young core of Brayan Bello, Triston Casas, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu.
“I think it’s really important,” Kennedy said. “I think the best organizations really go out of their way to try and shore up the players that they feel that they have real strong conviction in. That effort has absolutely been there. In certain instances, we haven’t yet done that. We were able to make a deal with Garrett Whitlock, for example, along those lines. And there’s been conversations with other guys.
“We should be able to determine which players would qualify for longer-term extensions, whether it’s Bello, whether it’s Abreu, whether it’s Duran or Casas. These are really important decisions that our baseball operations people have to make.”
The only young player that has been extended recently was Garrett Whitlock, he signed a four-year, $18.75 million contract while Chaim Bloom was leading the front office.
The Red Sox have discussed other extensions with players, including Tanner Houck.
The Red Sox have a promising young core and have Masataka Yoshida signed through 2027, Trevor Story through 2028 and Rafael Devers through 2033. Boston would be wise to try and get these other young stars locked in and the new leader of baseball ops will certainly have work to do.
“That is perhaps one of the most important roles of the baseball operations, front office and the leadership,” Kennedy said. “You should know your own players better than anyone else in baseball. You live with them, spend time with them on the road. You have all the underlying data and information. You see the intangibles.
“Our job in ownership is to support them when they have strong conviction and belief in those players. That’s something that we definitely need to do.”
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