When Jim Rice speaks, the Boston Red Sox nation listens. And this week, he didn’t hold back. From calling out the team’s lack of timely hitting to stressing the importance of playing those ‘small balls.’ Because he knows, Boston now has no big hitters, so why try doing something they can’t achieve success in? But if Rice was the sermon, Rob Refsnyder was really the altar call.

With the Boston Red Sox dropping their third straight game – this time a 3-2 heartbreaker to the Brewers, Refsnyder had seen enough. In a rather controversial and rare interview, he completely vented about the team. “It’s frustrating. Tired of losing… Tired of losing close games.” He was not venting just about the score; he was talking about the lack of execution too by the team members, saying, “There’s some good at-bats here and there, but we’re just not getting the drop-down. It’s not for lack of effort or work ethic, game planning.” 

And if you look properly, he has a point.

Boston now sits at 27-29, and the cracks are showing.

They lost Triston Casas, and they also lost Alex Bregman to injury. Now, they are losing games that they should be winning. They have come so close to winning them, but didn’t. “We suck right now. We’ve got to just be better,” Refsnyder said. And he was even sorry for the pitchers, who, despite doing their best, couldn’t find the results. But really, the real harsh truth was spoken by sportscaster Alanna Rizzo.

The sports reporter had joined the NESN show, where she too highlighted the gospel Rice mentioned. She said that the Red Sox are trying to do the impossible—swing their way out of a slump rather than adjust to their new reality. What they really need is to accept the reality of the lineup and play smarter baseball. “I think everyone is trying to swing for the fences—trying to hit a five-run home run, if you will—when all you need to do is play 90 feet, right?” Alanna mentioned in NESN.

But that’s not all. She highlighted an underlying truth that’s heartbreaking.

She said that the team is hovering around the .500 mark, but they could have been worse had it not been for Garrett Crochet. “I think, you know, when you’re hovering around the .500 mark, and you think about where this team would be, guys, without the services of Garrett Crochet—they’d be way, way below .500.” So by this, it’s clear—the state of affairs is grim for the Red Sox.

And looking at Refsnyder, it seems even patience is running dry, and one reason for it could be Boston’s management.

Maybe it’s time the Boston Red Sox stopped babying their stars

There is no denying that the Boston Red Sox are struggling because top players are being injured and on the IL, or the team’s performance is not up to par. However, barring that, one other reason why they seem to have fallen is their mentality, and it’s starting to affect people in the wrong ways.

See, manager Alex Cora is known for being a players’ guy. The best example was when Cora jumped into the Buehler fiasco only to be thrown out of the game.

Now, the desire to protect your player is not bad. But when it outweighs the will to win, that’s a huge problem. Not just the Buehler incident, even the Trevor Story example is perfect here. And it’s not going unnoticed.

Trevor Story is hitting just .222 on the season, and his OPS over 30 games is .399. But instead of benching him, Cora continues to put him back, simply walking on eggshells around the former all-star. After all, no one wants to mess with Story’s head. But here is the thing – this is major league baseball. Here, no one is entitled to play when they are not bringing the expected production, not even Story.

So, at the Section 10 Podcast, co-host Steve Perrault called for the Red Sox to go nuclear: “The time has come…..DFA Trevor Story. Let the Anthony-Mayer-Campbell trio all grow up in the big leagues together.”

Now, DFA’ing may be a bit of a stretch. But the point is the Red Sox need to stop waiting and letting emotional ties cloud judgment. Do you think the promises made are what is costing them wins now, too?