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Tyler O’Neill’s comments on Cardinals drama show Red Sox trade could ignite play

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Five brief observations in response to the announcement that Justin Turner, as anticipated, is joining the Blue Jays for a $13 million one-year contract after leaving the Red Sox:

1. The greatest Red Sox-related news from the November general managers meetings came from new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, who claimed the team had been accepting trade calls for Alex Verdugo before trading him a few weeks later. However, Breslow’s open statement at the time on his perception of the designated hitter position was intriguing and unmistakably hinted at Turner’s exit.

Breslow stated on November 8 in Scottsdale, “We would definitely seek to give Alex (Cora) as much freedom as possible, on a high level, knowing that it’s a long season and there will be moments when he’s going to look to pull players off their bats but keep their lineups intact. I don’t believe there is a single, effective method.

“It goes without saying that I played with David Ortiz, who filled the DH position for a long time and did so rather successfully. If not, it makes sense to arrange as many different types of creative options as possible.

At that point, it became very clear that the Red Sox preferred to rotate the DH spot instead of giving those at-bats to one defensively limited player like they did for years by employing Ortiz, then J.D. Martinez, and eventually Turner. And that, despite Turner repeatedly stating that he wanted to come back to Boston — and even extending his lease well into the offseason so he and his wife, Kourtney, could keep exploring the city instead of going home to Los Angeles — all but ruled out a potential reunion.

Turner played 395 ⅓ innings in the field the previous season, backing up Rafael Devers at third, spelling Triston Casas against lefties at first base, and even seeing a few games at second base before a nagging heel issue (bone bruise) limited him to nearly solely playing DH in the latter half of the season. Turner didn’t offer much defensively, which was to be expected at his age of 38. It didn’t make sense for the Red Sox, who were hoping to improve in that area of the game the next season, to have him spend a large amount of time on the field.

Now, barring an addition of someone like Jorge Soler or Adam Duvall (who both remain free agents), the Red Sox appear willing to mix and match in the DH spot on a daily basis. The defensively limited Masataka Yoshida seems like a candidate to get a good amount of at-bats there with Tyler O’Neill, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Rob Refsnyder and (eventually) Ceddanne Rafaela in the outfield mix.

Devers could get some time off his feet there, too, with Pablo Reyes or Bobby Dalbec serving as the backup third baseman. The Red Sox could still benefit from adding someone who’s capable of smashing lefties and playing first base; Duvall is a fit, assuming they feel comfortable with him in the infield, though Garrett Cooper is a fallback option, too. It’s hard to envision any combination matching the production Turner gave the Red Sox last year as their second-best hitter (and perhaps team MVP).

2. It’s hard envisioning Turner’s short time in Boston going much better. He immediately came in and made a massive impact on the field, in the clubhouse and in the community in a way you just don’t see from established veterans making cameos at the end of their careers. This wasn’t a guy who had success elsewhere for a decade parachuting in, collecting a paycheck and moving along to the next stop. Turner ingratiated himself with the city and the fan base immediately in the most authentic of ways.

A southern California native coming off an ultra-productive decade with his hometown Dodgers, Turner was initially uneasy about the idea of playing so far from home in a new place but decided almost immediately to go all-in with the Red Sox. He naturally became the unquestioned leader of the club by the end of spring training (more on that in a minute) and brought the feel of a guy who had been in Boston forever.
With his wife, Kourtney, Turner made it his mission to explore every corner of New England, with the couple taking day trips to cities all over the region, and as previously mentioned, extending their lease into November in an effort to get the most out of their experience. The Turners were also extremely active in the community, bringing their foundation’s Turner Trot to Boston in late August and making an impact on their new home throughout the season. Some players happen to call a certain city for a year or two and then keep it moving. Others, like Turner, make those places home.

And what he did on the field can’t be overstated, either. Turner largely carried the Red Sox’ offense for much of the early part of the season, delivering clutch hit after clutch hit. He hit .276 with 23 homers, 96 RBIs and an .800 OPS in 146 games. He set career highs in hits (154) and RBIs (96) while falling one run short (86) of a career high. Among 79 players with at least 150 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, Turner ranked seventh in average (.338, third in AL) and eighth in OPS (.942), third in AL). His 626 plate appearances were tied for the most ever by a Red Sox player in a season at the age of 38 or older.

Rank Turner high on the list of recent Red Sox one-year wonders along with new Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre, and, even though it was only a couple of months, Kyle Schwarber.

3. Turner’s departure does leave a massive void in terms of leadership. He came into spring training saying that respect needed to be earned and not given… then earned it almost immediately. By the time Opening Day rolled around, Turner was Boston’s unquestioned leader, addressing big-picture questions about the team and setting the tone in regards to being a professional. Some guys get the “leader” label and wear it without backing it up. But Turner walked the (hobbled) walk.

After suffering a very painful bone bruise in his heel hitting first base in Seattle at the end of July, Turner could barely walk for the rest of the season. Watching him try to get around the clubhouse in August and September was hard to watch. Yet he never went on the injured list or even considered shutting things down, even when the Red Sox were out of the race. It was important to him to post every day and show young players the importance of sticking things out for your team. Facing an injury that would normally require time off while playing for a team that had nothing to play for, Turner was in the lineup every day.
Shutting it down was never an option. On Sept. 19 in Texas, Turner was really, really limping and I tweeted that the club should consider ending his season early while noting it was “extremely impressive he had gutted it out this long.” Innocuous tweet in the middle of the game. A couple days later at Fenway, I approached Turner for an interview on a separate topic and was greeted with a question.
“Are you approaching me as a journalist today,” Turner asked me, “or are you a doctor now? You seem to have a lot of medical theories.”
it was a playful, friendly and not so subtle way of Turner telling me there was no way he was about to sit. In not so many words, it was him telling me he thought it was moronic for me to even float the idea of him bailing on his team, even in the face of injury. Not to overstate it or wax poetic about a 10-second interaction on a random September afternoon… but that’s leadership.
Boston’s roster has seen plenty of change in the last few years with plenty of leaders — most notably Ortiz, Xander Bogaerts and now Turner — leaving town. There’s a void there now. Trevor Story might be that guy. Casas, though young, could be, too. It’ll be interesting to see who steps up in that regard.
4. Not to further kick Chaim Bloom four months after he was shown the door, but the last week has not been a good one for him in terms of looking back at his final trade deadline with the Red Sox. Even before Turner signed with Toronto, lefty starter James Paxton left the Sox to ink a one-year deal with the Dodgers… a team that showed significant interest in him over the summer.
Bloom’s inaction at the deadline — which he regrettably explained away by calling his team “underdogs,” a choice of words that didn’t seem to go over too well with the coaching staff — was tough to understand at the time but looks even worse now. He clearly didn’t want to add because he didn’t think the team had good enough playoff odds to sacrifice future wins and there’s also a chance he didn’t have ownership’s blessing to add more salary with the payroll creeping around $225 million at the time. But the decision not to sell by dealing pieces like Turner, Paxton and Duvall (all pending free agents) looks worse a few months later. Yes, hindsight is 20/20, but one year after making sure he wouldn’t lose Christian Vázquez for nothing (and getting two players who look like solid pieces back), Bloom sat back and got zero future value for players who did not re-sign with the Red Sox.
Perhaps clubhouse reaction had something to do with that. Bloom had a front-row seat for how the Vázquez deal seemed to torpedo the group in 2022 and heard, loudly, from veterans like Devers and Kenley Jansen who were begging for additions, especially on the pitching side, last summer. Maybe the calculus was that moving Paxton, Duvall or especially Turner would cause ripples that would be more impactful than anything the Red Sox could get back. Still, many with the Red Sox were shocked by the inaction in the days after the deadline.

5. Financially, Turner had a good offseason. By declining his player option with the Red Sox, he secured a $6.7 million buyout, which added to his $13 million guarantee from the Blue Jays, brings his earnings to nearly $20 million in 2024.

Financially, the Red Sox are not having a good offseason. The big question continues to be exactly where the 2024 payroll will land. It has been clear for weeks that it won’t be anywhere near the $237 million competitive balance tax (CBT) threshold. Since Sam Kennedy said the quiet part out loud at Winter Weekend by admitting the total would likely be lower than the $225 million number from last year, it’s fair to wonder how close Boston will even come to that number. Start thinking of $225 million as the highest level of the JHT (John Henry threshold). And start bracing yourself for the Red Sox not even coming close.
MassLive’s Chris Smith ran a payroll projection Tuesday that has the Red Sox around $191 million (and about $200 million built in $10 million for in-season moves, bonuses, etc.) Does anyone really think they’re going to add $25 million in payroll before Opening Day to get close to that $225 million mark?
Big-market teams spend and figure out positional fits later. Think about the Schwarber move at the deadline in 2021. There’s no reason, even with him being an imperfect fit roster-wise, that the Red Sox should have totally discounted the possibility of bringing Turner back for $13 million… unless the payroll restrictions are even worse than we think.

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