After months of speculation following consecutive disappointing Red Sox seasons, John Henry has stated he has no plans to sell the team.
In an extensive email interview with the Financial Times, Henry addressed concerns about his commitment to the franchise.
“My wife and I live and work in Boston,” he said. “We are dedicated to the city and the region. So the Sox are not going to be up for sale. We generally don’t sell assets.”
The founder of Fenway Sports Group (FSG) — which owns the Red Sox, NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, Premier League’s Liverpool F.C., and Boston Globe Media Partners — recently made a bid for a stake in the PGA Tour.
Currently, the Red Sox are just above .500 for the 2024 season. When chairman Tom Werner promised fans an aggressive offseason, it was expected the organization would invest heavily in roster improvements.
On December 9, superstar pitcher Shohei Ohtani signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers.
“(Werner’s comments) overshadowed everything else because they feed into the false belief that many fans and media have, that you should mortgage the future each year for the present,” Henry told the Financial Times. “You have to base acquisitions and dispositions on the future, not the past. That is generally unpopular.”
The Red Sox finished at the bottom of the AL East for three of the last four seasons. Henry emphasized that fan expectations for near-annual championships don’t align with the realities of professional baseball.
“Because fans expect championships almost annually,” he said, “they easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30.”
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