Henry open to bolstering Red Sox with in-season moves
Revamped roster may undergo more work depending on team's success
LEDYARD, Conn. -- There's still a month or so until Spring Training begins, and therefore plenty of time for general manager Ben Cherington to make further personnel tweaks, but Red Sox principal owner John Henry is pretty happy with the state of the team's roster.
From the starting pitcher trio of Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson to the big bats like Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, Henry is pleased with what Cherington & Co. have done to prepare a rebound from 2014's disappointing season.
"[The roster] is very strong," Henry said Friday at Foxwoods during the team's "Winter Weekend." "We are significantly over the competitive balance tax [threshold]. I think for competitive balance purposes, we are over $200 [million].
"The reason we're over 200 is because we're building the team we wanted to build."
That degree of financial commitments will not prevent Cherington from making in-season moves, if he feels they are good fits.
"We've consistently done that if we're competitive," Henry said. "We'll be in the same position this year."
The key there is "if we're competitive." Henry is hopeful the Sox will abandon the peaks-and-valleys of the last three seasons and return to the state of regular competitiveness that it enjoyed the decade or so prior.
"I don't know if I'd be willing to finish last every other year to finish first every other year. I don't know if that's a very good tradeoff," Henry said. "We spent a decade being consistently at the top, challenging. It's been frustrating two out of the last three years to basically be in a rebuilding mode midway through the season. That's something that we hope would never [happen]. We've sort of committed to each other, this isn't going to happen again."
Henry hinted that the Red Sox are making changes with regard to the way they build teams in light of the last three seasons. The two tough seasons on both sides of a wildly successful campaign highlighted what works and what doesn't.
"You see the difference," Henry said. "They've done a tremendous job of setting the stage for 2015."