The Astros — bold, decisive, interesting — are the team the Red Sox used to be: Kepner

New York Times

2 days ago

BOSTON – In the climactic scene of 'The Fabelmans,' the character that serves as an avatar for a young Steven Spielberg meets the director John Ford at his Hollywood office. Describing the artwork on his wall, Ford shares an essential lesson of storytelling:
'Now remember this,' he growls. 'When the horizon's at the bottom, it's interesting! When the horizon's at the top, it's interesting! When the horizon's in the middle, it's boring as [expletive]!'
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Once upon a time, the Boston Red Sox were interesting. Sometimes they won the World Series. Sometimes their egos got in the way of that. But they always acted boldly and decisively. They swung big.
The Houston Astros are the franchise the Red Sox used to be. They've gone to four World Series in the last decade, burning through a few managers and general managers along the way. Controversies? They've had a few. But they're always loaded with stars, and when they lose some, they find others.
On Thursday, they found one in the alumni directory: Carlos Correa, the prodigal shortstop who returned in a trade with the Minnesota Twins. Correa was back in orange on Friday, hitting cleanup and making his career debut at third base. He wore his old No. 1, which also describes Houston's place in the American League West.
'It's a really happy environment right now,' said Bryan Abreu, the Astros' star setup man. 'We feel like we're starting the season again.'
Like Justin Verlander before him, Correa left as a free agent and came back before his contract was over. Owner Jim Crane sometimes spends rashly — José Abreu, Rafael Montero — but he keeps the bedroom just the way you left it.
'The front office and the coaching staff, they do a really good job of developing players and getting the right people here,' Correa said before batting practice Friday, in the visitors' dugout at Fenway Park. 'And they just know how to win. It's only one mentality in this clubhouse, and that's to win — all the way.'
As the old ditty from 'Ball Four' goes, it makes a fellow proud to be an Astro. Correa was fully engaged with the Twins while he played there, but kept his home in Houston and maintained good relations with the Astros.
With Minnesota tearing down its roster amid a franchise sale, Correa eagerly approved a trade to the team that rebuilt around him in the 2010s. It was the only other place he could see himself.
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'You never want to burn bridges in this game,' Correa said. 'You never know how things are going to end up panning out. And even after baseball, when you need a job, front office or whatever, you don't want to ever burn any bridges. My relationship in Minnesota — fantastic with everybody. Same here in Houston when I left. And now you see that I'm back.'
That's one way Houston differs from Boston — when a Red Sox player leaves, it's often with knives in his back. In the old days, though, the Red Sox would shrug it off, replace a Pedro Martínez with a Josh Beckett, and win another World Series.
These are not the old days. These are the boring days — not the players or the games, but the organizational ethos. The Red Sox seem to believe they can build a winner without taking risks, a trait they exhibit every offseason and trade deadline.
This week, Craig Breslow and his staff did the least of any American League contender to upgrade their roster. The Red Sox traded with the Los Angeles Dodgers for Dustin May, a rental righty with a 5.95 ERA in his last eight starts, and with the St. Louis Cardinals for Steven Matz, a rental lefty with a 6.19 ERA in his last 12 appearances.
Boston started the day 59-51, good for the second wild-card spot, two games ahead of Texas. May and Matz should make the team a little bit better. Joe Ryan would have made the team a lot better. There is work to do.
'When you look at the Green Monster, we're in third place, five games back,' Manager Alex Cora said, referring to the AL standings on the wall. 'So we feel like we can compete with anybody, and we've got a real shot to win the division.'
The Red Sox haven't done that since 2018, when they took their third consecutive division crown under Dave Dombrowski and raced to their fourth World Series victory of the century. Within a year, though, they had fired Dombrowski and Mookie Betts had played his final game for the team.
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Betts' trade to the Dodgers — under Chaim Bloom in 2020 — was this century's Babe Ruth sale. For a better example of trading a superstar, consider the Astros' GM Dana Brown, who dealt Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs last winter for an All-Star third baseman (Isaac Paredes), a promising rookie outfielder (Cam Smith) and a starter who made the season-opening rotation (Hayden Wesneski) before getting hurt.
With a hamstring injury threatening Paredes' season, the Astros pivoted to Correa, assuming $73.2 million of the $103.2 million left on his contract through 2028. Minnesota will cover the other $30 million and took a token minor leaguer (pitcher Matt Mikulski) in return.
It's a risk, to be sure, given Correa's health history — he has played in 140+ games in just two of his 11 major-league seasons — and performance for the Twins this year: .267/.319/.386, which he attributed to difficulty adjusting to new coaches. But Correa is only 30, and nobody knows him better than the Astros. They took the chance.
'He's a great leader, man,' Jose Altuve said. 'He's a guy that definitely makes your clubhouse better. We all know how passionate he is about baseball, how smart he is, and how he can affect other players and make them better.'
This was an apt setting for a Correa reunion, the spot where he and Altuve turned around the 2021 ALCS. With the Red Sox six outs from taking a three-games-to-one lead, Altuve tied Game 4 with a homer and Correa led off the ninth with a double to spark a seven-run rally. The Red Sox never led again and lost the series in six.
Houston would lose that fall's World Series, but won the next year without Correa. His replacement, Jeremy Peña, was the MVP. Now that they are teammates, Correa sounded relieved to let Peña stay at short. New position, no problem.
'He'll be awesome, he'll be great,' said Alex Bregman, the longtime Houston third baseman who now anchors Boston's lineup. 'Obviously, he's got a Platinum Glove, so he's always been one of the best defenders in the league. We always used to say if he caught the ball, the guy was out because of the big-time arm.'
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The Red Sox signed Bregman to a typically risk-averse contract last winter: three years and $120 million, with an opt-out clause after 2025. They also made one-year deals with Walker Buehler and Aroldis Chapman to go with an actual long-term commitment: a trade for starter Garrett Crochet, who signed a six-year, $170 million contract.
Crochet's deal is the richest on the team after June's trade of Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. Perhaps the Red Sox will redirect Devers' money to Bregman this winter. But Bregman turns 32 in March, and data models rarely endorse the idea of long-term contracts at that age.
Maybe the Red Sox will grow tired of austerity, of one-year contracts and painless trades for fixer-uppers, of waiting for a homegrown core to spark a renaissance. Or maybe this group makes a deep playoff run, validates the front office's approach and makes all the critics look foolish.
But these days, it sure seems like a lot more fun to follow the Astros.
'The credit goes to our players,' Manager Joe Espada said. 'If you put your team in a position to add, you're welcoming players today in your clubhouse. If you don't put your team in a position to add, you're saying goodbye to a lot of your teammates.'
Either way is interesting. In Boston, the horizon's in the middle.
(Photo of Houston's Carlos Correa and Boston's Carlos Narvaez: Charles Krupa / AP Photo)