FORT MYERS, Florida — The 2024 Boston Red Sox will be must-see TV, whether they like it or not.
Netflix, the streaming behemoth, has already started filming a behind-the-scenes docuseries about the upcoming Red Sox season. The show, set to debut in 2025, follows in the footsteps of other successful all-access sports docs on Netflix, including “Drive to Survive,” “Last Chance U” and “Cheer.”
Evidence of the project is scattered all across Boston’s spring training complex: enormous, high-tech movie cameras, boom mics, carts with mountains of gear, producers in headsets. As Lucas Giolito threw live batting practice to his new Boston teammates under the midday Florida sun on Tuesday, a camera operator recorded every second from behind a protective netting next to third base.
All ominous signs of an omnipresent film crew set to document the club’s every move.
“Nobody wants to be on Netflix as a losing team,” face of the franchise Rafael Devers told reporters Tuesday. “That’s a bad look.”
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Unfortunately for Devers and Co., most projection systems expect the 2024 Red Sox to finish around or just below .500. So while the show is being billed as a phenomenal opportunity for the sport to showcase itself and grow interest from a new audience, it comes at an extremely peculiar time for this particular franchise.
Boston is coming off two consecutive 78-84 seasons, the franchise’s worst two-year stretch since 2014-15. That underperformance led to the firing of chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, whom the organization replaced with former MLB pitcher and Cubs assistant general manager Craig Breslow in late October.
Then came the slip-up of the winter. At Breslow’s introductory news conference, team chairman Tom Werner boldly proclaimed: “We know that we have to be competitive next year. We’re going to have to be full-throttle in every possible way.”
Fans heard Werner’s comments and expected a splashy offseason. With a robust free-agent class that included Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Aaron Nola and Blake Snell, the Red Sox appeared prepared to dabble at the top of the market.
That’s not what happened — not even close.
Instead, the Red Sox played pauper, with Giolito (two years, $38.5 million with an opt-out) representing the only notable free-agent addition. Despite Werner’s “full-throttle” quip, the payroll currently sits about $21 million below last season’s mark. Boston could still swoop in for one of the remaining free agents, with Snell, Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bellinger being the most impactful, but the consensus around camp is that Werner and team owner John Henry don’t believe an increase in payroll will necessarily lead to an improvement in performance.
Devers, whom the Red Sox signed to a franchise-record 11-year, $331 million extension last winter, vehemently disagrees.
On Tuesday, the Boston third baseman, long considered an easygoing, happy-go-lucky presence, slammed the front office for not making a more significant investment in the roster. It was the first time in his seven-year Red Sox tenure that the typically bashful Devers spoke so critically about his employers.
“Everybody in this organization wants to win, but [Red Sox leadership] need to make an adjustment to help us players be in a better position to win,” Devers said via interpreter Carlos Villoria.
Devers, still only 27 years old, is well within his rights to be irked. He leads a young, exciting lineup that gives the team an alluring floor. But the starting rotation, the club’s downfall the past two seasons, lacks both depth and ceiling. While the additions of Breslow — whom the industry considers a pitching development expert — and new pitching coach Andrew Bailey should help the team improve on the fringes, it’s difficult to envision Boston having enough pitching for a deep October run.
“Everybody knows what we need,” Devers said, alluding to the club’s lack of impact arms.
It all makes for a bizarre juxtaposition and — if Netflix is lucky — great TV. A ticked-off fan base, a frustrated superstar, a hesitant owner and a potentially underwhelming team could provide an array of fascinating storylines. Netflix showed with its “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” series, about a floundering English soccer club, that on-field success isn’t necessary to create entertainment value.
That Red Sox brass approved this project — a decision finalized last summer — isn’t inherently a misstep. However, it’s undeniably odd that with this series on the docket, Boston approached this winter with the lethargy of a koala. If the Red Sox knew that every step of their 2024 season would be showcased to the world, why didn’t they seek to enhance the quality of the product?
The dynamic puts manager Alex Cora, who didn’t seem particularly enthused about the project, in an unenviable situation. Running a big-league club is a difficult enough job; now he has cameras and recording equipment documenting everything.
“The way I put it — to the players, to the coaches, to everybody involved — is to embrace it because they’re going to be here,” he said.
Using the situation as motivation is understandable, but it’s not even March. Spring optimism so often wilts in the summer heat. And unless Boston opens the checkbook, the frustration Devers expressed Thursday will only intensify as the season unfolds.
“Hopefully it’s the story of a team that nobody gave a chance to win,” Cora said. “We can hoist that trophy at the end of October … and when it comes out next year, they can make a lot of money out of it.”
But while a championship ending would be storybook, Netflix and the Red Sox will make a killing — in dollars and in visibility — whether the team triumphs or stumbles into last place. Neither the club nor the company would’ve greenlit the project and its multi-million-dollar budget if there weren’t gold at the end of the rainbow.
That, if you ask Red Sox die-hards and Rafael Devers, is exactly the problem.
Source Agencies
