Can hope for it, but I don’t see it happening. My expectations are around the level of Balcom-Miller, maybe a couple players at that level, who would fit in somewhere near the bottom of our top 20 prospects lists. Players who could become something, but are a few years out.

We’ll take whatever they offer.

But attitudes like yours—two years in a row with no playoffs despite the team almost reaching them both times—is a testament to what Theo and the current ownership have done for the team. The fact that any Red Sox fan has expectations anywhere near what yours appear to be shows the profound change (for the better) which has occurred.

Theo and our FO were at one point fairly lonely in baseball in terms of using advanced metrics and generally using smart player evaluation techniques. In recent years, this has become much more widespread, and one could argue that Theo’s edge has dulled, albeit if only because others have become smarter as well. I’d imagine his replacement (likely Cherington) will employ similar methods, but to deny his positive impact on this franchise is foolhardy beyond belief.

Because of what he, and yes, the ownership group, have built, the Red Sox don’t need to be smart all the time anymore, although it’s not like they won’t stop trying. This organization has become a financial juggernaut that can weather bad contracts.

Also, you can’t tell me at the beginning of the season you thought this team was going to miss the playoffs. No one was even thinking we might until mid-September, when Theo had very little power to do anything. This team seems to have been derailed primarily by off-field and injury issues, although mostly just a lot of untimely bad luck. I also think it’s intellectually disingenuous to bash the Crawford signing and spout the “WIN EVERY YEAR!!!!” line. I think the Crawford signing was a bad move, but mostly because it seemed excessive and that it could handcuff the Sox in the future, not because I thought he’d be replacement level. He’s a 3 WAR player at his worst—absolutely nobody saw this coming, and those who claim they did say so for completely stupid, baseless reasons.

Sorry if your comment was meant to be casual, but I’m really tired of some of the intellectually lazy Monday morning quarterbacking going on regarding Theo’s recent tenure, as well as the incredibly entitled attitudes of some fans lately. I’m only 22, and I only really started following the team obsessively since 2003ish, but I feel like an old man when I hear some fans’ attitudes. We’ve been blessed with something—twice—which many lifelong Sox fans never witnessed. Ever. And you are whining because we missed the playoffs two years in a row.

There’s this team about 100 miles south that is always accepting fans who expect to win everything every year, not realizing that the beauty of baseball is in its unpredictability, and no matter how good your team may seem on paper, some things can snowball and conspire against it. So you just have to accept that and hope the team can make it next year—and they definitely have the talent going forward. So you can either chin up, or go about your life like fans of that other team, constantly needing something special to explain the variability which is inherent in baseball after every SHOCKING1 ALDS loss.