The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2018 World Series in five games. An MLB investigation later determined that Red Sox video replay operator J.T. Watkins had misused game feeds to steal signs during the 2018 regular season but had not done so during the postseason.
Yeah, right.
As a result, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred did not strip the Red Sox of their World Series title. He did, however, impose the following disciplinary action, which amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist:
1) J.T. Watkins shall be suspended for the 2020 season and 2020 Postseason. When Watkins returns from his suspension, he will be prohibited from serving as the replay room operator during any game for the 2021 season and 2021 Postseason.
2) The Boston Red Sox will forfeit their second-round selection in the 2020 First-Year Player Draft.
3) Alex Cora will be suspended through the conclusion of the 2020 Postseason for his conduct as the bench coach of the Houston Astros in 2017. While I will not impose additional discipline on Cora as a result of the conduct engaged in by Watkins (because I do not find that he was aware of it), I do note that Cora did not effectively communicate to Red Sox players the sign-stealing rules that were in place for the 2018 season.
No other member of the 2018 Red Sox staff will be disciplined because I do not find that anyone was aware of or should have been aware of Watkins’s conduct. The Club’s front office took more than reasonable steps to ensure that its employees, including Watkins, adhered to the rules. Notwithstanding these good faith efforts to comply with the rules, however, the Red Sox organization ultimately is responsible for the conduct of a member of its advance scouting staff.
[Click here to download a PDF of Manfred’s complete report]
(Photo credit Mark J. Terrill)
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On December 21, 2018, right-hander Joe Kelly, a member of that 2018 Red Sox team, was signed by the Dodgers as a free agent.
On February 10, 2020, future Hall of Fame right fielder Mookie Betts and 2012 AL Cy Young award winner David Price, both members of that 2018 Red Sox team, were traded to the Dodgers for popular Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo and top Dodgers prospects Jeter Downs and Connor Wong.
Betts subsequently signed a 12-year/$365 million contract extension on July 22, 2020, which will keep him in Dodger Blue through the 2032 season, when he will be 40 years old.
Price will be entering the sixth year of a seven-year/$217 million contract in 2021, which runs through the 2022 season. He has yet to make his first pitch as a Dodger, having elected to opt-out of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By every indication, any ill will that Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman may have had towards Boston – if there even ever was any – has long since passed. And given what Betts – and to a much lesser extent Kelly – brought to the Dodgers in 2020, Dodger fans should be grateful towards the Red Sox instead of harboring hate and discontent towards them.
…until now.
On Saturday afternoon, it was being widely reported that 29-year-old Dodgers super utility and huge fan-favorite Kiké Hernández, who became a free agent when the final out of the 2020 World Series was recorded, was being courted by the (wait for it…) Boston Red Sox.
(Image courtesy of MLB Trade Rumors)
To be brutally honest, unless the San Juan, Puerto Rico native and a sixth-round draft pick in 2009 by the (ugh) Houston Astros out of the American Military Academy in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico is willing to give Friedman and the Dodgers a huge hometown discount to re-sign with LA, there is every reason to believe that when that final World Series out was recorded, it was indeed Kiké’s final game as a Dodger.
To be even more brutally honest and as much as it pains me to say, Hernández has absolutely positively earned the right and deserves to be an everyday player in the MLB, even if it is with another team … even the Boston Red Sox.
But choose wisely, Kiké. Unlike Rob Manfred and even Andrew Friedman, there are many Dodger fans who do still harbor hate and discontent towards the Red Sox.
…and always will.
Play Ball!
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