In a rare interview with The Financial Times, Red Sox principal owner John Henry reiterated that he has no plans to sell the Red Sox while shedding some light on why he runs the organization the way he does.
Henry, who has not spoken about the Red Sox in a formal media availability since Feb. 2020, told reporter Sara Germano via email that he feels fans’ expectations to contend for World Series championships on a yearly basis are unrealistic.
“Because fans expect championships almost annually,” he told Germano, “they easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30.”
Henry, team chairman Tom Werner and president/CEO Sam Kennedy have come under scrutiny in recent years as the Red Sox have struggled on the field. Since winning the World Series in 2018, the Sox have reached the postseason just once (2021) while finishing in last place in their division in three of the last four seasons. Angering fans further was a decision to cut payroll and not spend on improvements over the winter while other teams, like the Dodgers and Yankees, loaded up with stars. Henry has not publicly addressed why the Sox chose that route while others, like Werner and Kennedy, have spent months walking back Werner’s November proclamation that the team was about to go “full throttle” in its attempt to improve for 2024.
Henry told Germano that he thought the backlash toward Werner was overdone.
“He also took issue with the obsession over his and Werner’s remarks about ‘expensive’ ballplayers and going ‘full throttle,’” Germano said of Henry. “The latter had ‘overshadowed every other word, paragraph and interview of the winter because it reaches so deeply into the false belief that many fans and media have that you should mortgage the future each year for the present.’ Creating a sustainable future for the Red Sox was, he argued, more important than any given year’s payroll. ‘You have to base acquisitions and dispositions on the future, not the past,’ he said. ‘That is unpopular generally.’”
Henry, who also owns Liverpool FC, the Pittsburgh Penguins and various other entities, contended that Fenway Sports Group was strong enough in personnel that there was no risk of him getting distracted and not focusing enough time and energy on a single asset like the Red Sox. And as he and others have said for years, Henry shut down any possibility of selling the franchise he has owned since 2002.
“My wife and I live and work in Boston,” he said. “We are committed to the city, the region. So the Sox are not going to come up for sale. We generally don’t sell assets.”
Henry is not expected to change his ways with the media anytime soon.
“I don’t think people in my position can win publicly -- your words are often used against you -- so the less I say I generally think the better,” he told Germano.