And So It Begins: Red Sox Clubhouse Turns Toxic as Veterans and Young Players Start Pointing Fingers After Another Brutal Loss

And so it begins. 

The Red Sox are a terrible fucking baseball team. At 13-21, they're tied for the fewest wins in the AL. Only the Mets have fewer wins (11) than any other team in baseball. The on-field product stinks. So naturally, that on-field stench is now leaking into the team's clubhouse. 

After another loss to the Houston Astros, Wilson Contreras made a comment about the team's vibe since Alex Cora was fired - maybe players are trying too hard? From the Boston Globe:

“Actually, no,” Contreras said. “After Cora got released or fired, the guys got loose a little more, because I feel like the tension was gone. But it’s really hard when you go up to bat, and if you look at the scoreboard, your numbers are not there in May. It’s easy to fall in that trap of the numbers. I’ve done it before, but with a young group of guys, I guess we have to be patient.”

Why did the tension go away with Cora?

“That’s a good question. I don’t know. I haven’t dug into that too deep, but that’s what I felt. That’s my own opinion,” Contreras said. “When Alex wasn’t in the dugout, the team was like [exhale noise], like loose. But it doesn’t matter. We have to play better. We have to find consistency. We have to get better. We have to be better.”

The suggestion here seems to be that the team has too many young guys and they're not responding well to early-season struggles. 

Sean McAdam of MassLive asked one of those young guys, Marcelo Mayer, if he agreed with Contreras. 

He didn't. 

“To me, that’s kind of an excuse: blame the young guys. But at the end of the day, we’re all playing baseball, we’re all pros. We all know what we need to do. I don’t think we’re doing a good job with runners in scoring position. When you don’t do that, you don’t score runs.” 

Giphy Images.

So this is how it will play out: the veterans blaming the young guys, and the young guys pushing back. The Red Sox season is falling apart, and it's not even Memorial Day. 

And look, this did not start yesterday - this started with former manager Alex Cora. The night before he got fired, Cora took this pretty obvious shot at the roster and the young players. 

“The way it ended, we’ve got to be better than that, and that's something that we've been talking about,” Cora said. “Play the right way, regardless of the situation. We’ve got to be smart. We cannot make those mistakes. They know it. We’ve got a bunch of kids that are learning the game. It's my job to keep teaching them the game.”

We saw another example just this weekend against the Astros, when young outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela was annoyed that veteran player Trevor Story was not in position to make a play on a great throw from Rafaela that should have ended with an out. 

Rafaela had every right to be upset. But rather than take the blame for not being in the right position, Story talked about "handling it the right way." 

“We’ll keep it between us,” he said. “We’ll keep it between us and that’s what I think good teams do. We’ll handle it.

There is a lot of blame to go around for getting to this point where players in the clubhouse are starting to point fingers at each other about who to blame for this shitty season.

E Jason Wambsgans. Shutterstock Images.

No, don't blame Alex Bregman. Blame Craig Breslow for not valuing his leadership in the team's clubhouse. So many guys credited Bregman for what he meant to the team, and Bres fucked up the negotiation with a GUY WHO WANTED TO BE HERE. Craig also built this team, which can't hit worth a damn, so blame him for sure. Let's check the Cubs record….oh, 22-12. Good for Bregman. Love that guy. Hate Breslow. HATE. 

Blame Alex Cora. He clearly had an issue with the roster makeup and made sure his veterans knew about it. I don't think he was helping the situation, and as one of the highest-paid managers in baseball, that's kind of your job. 

A little blame on interim manager Chad Tracy for letting it get to this point. Not a great sign for his chances to stay on if this shit is going to happen just a week after he took over the club. 

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Most of all, blame the players. 

The old guys suck. The young guys suck. They ALL suck. Stop worrying about the age or service time of the guys around you and start hitting the fucking baseball. It's a joke. And it's embarrassing. 

This was always the next step in this season just completely unraveling. 

High expectations ✅

Bad start ✅

Manager Fired ✅

Clubhouse drama ✅

More losing ❓

More clubouse drama ❓

Trade Deadline firesale ❓

It will likely get worse this week, as the pathetic Sox offense faces Tarik Skubal, Framber Valdez, and the Tigers. 

Sox lost the series, but the way, before all this clubhouse bullshit. 

Series Stock Watch 

📈 Stock Up: Jake Bennett. Pitcher well in debut on Friday.

📈 Stock Up: Jarren Duran. Had two homeruns to trade him while his stock is high, Craig.  

📈 Stock Up: Garrett Whitlock. Looked much better this weekend.

📉 Stock Down: Clubhouse vibes.

📉 Stock Down: Ranger Suarez's hamstring. Had to leave the game on Sunday 

📉 Stock Down: The offense. Seven (!!!!!) runs all weekend. 

We were able to react to the Contreras quote live on Episode 29 - Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Myself, KutterisKing, and our fearless leader Hogdale reacted to yet another series loss. The vibes were low. Very low. 

⚾ Oh man, are the vibes low

⚾ Analyzing the Wilson Contreras quote

⚾ Story vs Ceddanne 

⚾ Is there any hope? 

⚾ Hodgale has accepted they suck

⚾ Mut is still in the bargaining stage

⚾ Kutter has given up on the season 

⚾ Young vs old players 

⚾ Why isn't Chad Tracy trying different shit? 

⚾ Cora created a lot of this tension in the clubhouse 

⚾ Breslow needs to go, duh. 

And so much more. Again, vibes were low. How can they not be???

Watch and sub on YouTube, and then go listen and sub wherever you get your podcasts. Let's all be angry together, 

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128 games to go!