You cant help but scratch your head regarding the John Lackey signing.
How does a GM who has made it clear about the next two years being “bridge” years go out and sign a top of the rotation pitcher to a five year contract worth approximately 18 million annually?
Well, in an email to Gordon Edes of ESPNboston.com, John Henry said, “No one in our front office, no player I've met on this team and certainly no Sox fans have ever been about waving white flags.”
Those comments fly in the face of Theos said mission statement about the next two years being "bridge" years. This John Lackey signing has John Henrys finger prints all over it.
Lets get into the mind of a billionaire like John Henry. When you have a lot of money and you’re feelin kinda down (or you are pissed because your neighbor has an SUV bigger than yours), you go out and buy something expensive to make you feel better.
When you own the Red Sox and are feeling shitty, you go out and buy yourself an $82.5 million pitcher.
And if your wife (Theo in this case) has clearly stated that she doesn’t want to buy anything big for the next few years, you go buy it on the way home from work...behind her back.
John Henry threw Theo's mission statement out the window with the John Lackey signing. And God bless him for it. He has the soft voice of your favorite uncle and balls of an 800 pound gorilla.
We are fortunate to have John Henry as an owner. He isnt a passive owner (um...Jeremy Jacobs) who lets his stingy, stubborn GM (um...Harry Sinden) prevent his team from getting the final piece to turn their team from a "competitive team" to a team thats "competing for a championship."
And how does he justify the signing? He doesn’t. Hes the frickin owner. As said in the email to Gordon Edes“We have two rings so far because we are always in transition. At this point I have no idea why some take words such as 'transitioning' and 'building bridges' to mean we are giving up over the short-term.”
As baseball fans, we are fortunate to have an owner like John Henry.
GO TO MASSHOLE SPORTS HOMEPAGE
