Red Sox Winter Weekend Thoughts

Red Sox Winter Weekend has come and gone as now players and fans have their sights are set on Spring Training just one month away. While fans battled the frigid cold out in Springfield over the weekend, the temperature during the session on Friday night was a bit warmer due to some rising tension in the room.

While the boos came down for Sam Kennedy and Craig Breslow during the new show hosted by Jonathan Papelbon, the weekend seemed to be a bit more time as it went on. While the Red Sox mixed in some good along with the bad, I had a few thoughts as I made my way home from out West.

Good move by Red Sox to include top prospects

The biggest difference from last year to this year was the inclusion of the top prospects in the system. While the front office is making more known day after day that the payroll will not be higher than it was last season, the prospects getting to interact with fans before getting to Boston was a good move.

A lot is riding on the “Big 3” of Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kyle Teel to live up to their potential. They all also seem to embrace the spotlight this early into their professional careers. I would expect all three to be playing in Worcester for a bit in 2024.

Jonathan Papelbon’s show will be a one and done

It truly felt like a “where were you” moment when Papelbon started talking while on stage at Winter Weekend. He might have set a record with the amount of times NESN had to censor him while speaking. That is why I believe this show will be a one and done.

I will give Papelbon a ton of credit for hosting this show as it seemed to have come about rather quickly the week before it went down. He did ask some tougher questions to Sam Kennedy and Craig Breslow that fans wanted to hear. He surely didn’t ask any lay up questions.

I do feel this was an interesting attempt to cover up the fact that the Red Sox did cancel the famous Town Hall that occurred in 2023 when ownership all got heavily booed while on stage. John Henry and Tom Warner also didn’t get on stage at all during the weekend to face the music of why the team isn’t spending money.

Rafael Devers absence was interesting

The Red Sox were missing five of their top six highest paid players at Winter Weekend. Of those six, the highest paid player in Rafael Devers was not in attendance and nobody really ever heard a reason why that was. Masataka Yoshida, Kenley Jansen, & Chris Martin were all missing as well. Lucas Giolito wasn’t there but he has a little bit of a pass due to not even being in the organization a month ago so who knows if he had prior commitments elsewhere.

Not sure it is the best look to not have your best player and highest paid players in attendance to an event when you are coming off back-to-back last place finishes.

These players are human

Now this is the exact reason why I did not dig too deep in on Devers not being there. Nobody knows the real reason why players weren’t there. They are human just like us. Things come up in our personal lives all the time.

Winter Weekend is great because it gives a chance for these guys to mingle with fans and media in a way you can’t get during the season. I want to point out Zack Kelly. Zack is one of the nicest guys anyone will ever meet in the game of baseball. After getting to be around him for a bit on Friday night, one can’t help but root for his success.

Triston Casas is stepping up in a leadership role

This one was a bit surprising to me as I left Springfield. Not that I don’t think Casas isn’t a good candidate to be a good leader in the clubhouse, but the fact he is doing this in the following season after his rookie campaign. With the team getting younger this year, the development into a leadership role is much needed from Casas.

He also hung around the prospects at the development camp that was held at Fenway Park the week before. This also comes a week after he hung out in Dallas with Trevor Story and other members of the infield working on fielding drills. You have to be pleased with how much he is making himself available to the younger guys while also joining up with Story to develop some infield chemistry.

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