Red Sox owner says he's not selling the team, attacks fan expectations

Mike Masala

Red Sox owner says he's not selling the team, attacks fan expectations image

The Boston Red Sox have won four World Series since John Henry purchased the club in 2002, the most of any major league team during that time, however, fans have negative feelings about ownership at the moment.

Boston has gone from a team that would do whatever it took and spend however much they needed to to win. In recent years, fans have seen Henry and the rest of Fenway Sports Group spend less and less, and in 2024, they have just the 11th-highest payroll in baseball.

Despite fans being upset, Henry said in an extremely rare interview that he had no intentions of selling the Red Sox.

"My wife and I live and work in Boston," Henry said. "We are committed to the city, the region. So the Sox are not going to come up for sale. We generally don't sell assets."

If that's Henry's position, things must revert back to the way they were in terms of spending, or he'll continue to face pressure from those who have no interest in paying to see a team not try their best to win a World Series.

It doesn't seem that anything will change, however, as he also attacked fans' beliefs that they should be trying to compete.

"Because fans expect championships almost annually," Henry said. "They easily become frustrated and are not going to buy into what the odds actually are: one in 20 or one in 30."

He's right about this - it's frustrating to see a team that won four times now be happy with their profits instead of reinvesting into the product.

This is just not the way they acted for nearly 20 years, and Henry expects fans to accept the shift.

Mike Masala

Mike Masala Photo

Mike Masala previously served as the Managing Editor of USA TODAY's Dolphins Wire as well as a contributing writer at Patriots Wire. A lifelong New England resident, he is the self-proclaimed captain and lone member of the Laurence Maroney Fan Club. Follow on Twitter/X: @Mike_Masala