Red Sox Supposedly Sign Former All-Star Despite Prolonged Illness
The Red Sox haven’t been afraid to take on an injury risk in recent seasons.
It was evident in 2022 when they signed James Paxton to a unique contract despite knowing he wouldn’t play for at least a year as he recovered from Tommy John surgery. That move worked out, so Boston decided to take the risk again and sign another pitcher who likely won’t be available for a while.
Michael Fulmer signed a minor league contract with the Red Sox on Thursday, according to MLB reporter Michael Mayer. Chris Cotillo of MassLive confirmed the news.
It’s unclear what the terms of the deal are, but Fulmer is expected to miss the entire 2024 season as he recovers from UCL revision surgery. He missed all of 2019 after undergoing Tommy John, which has a similar projected recovery to that of his latest surgery.
The 30-year-old was 3-5 with a 4.42 ERA in 58 games last season after signing a one-year, $4 million contract with the Chicago Cubs. Fulmer was the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year with the Detroit Tigers, going 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA, but eventually devolved into a reliever following his first season-ending surgery.
Fulmer is 37-50 with a 3.94 ERA across 262 total big league appearances to date and eclipsed 50 appearances in each of the last three seasons. NESN.com mentioned him as a possible target earlier this offseason.
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Red Sox to introduce MLB version of ‘Hard Knocks’ at worst possible time
The Boston Red Sox and Netflix have announced they’ll be collaborating on a season-long, “Hard Kocks”-esque docuseries to be filmed during the 2024 season.
The collaboration announcement took baseball fans everywhere by surprise — especially considering the army of Red Sox fans stating that they wouldn’t be supporting the team this season in the wake of multiple offseasons worth of bad business decisions.
The docuseries will follow the team for the entirety of the coming season and will be released in 2025. As part of the deal, Netflix will also be releasing a retrospective docuseries about the 2004 Curse-breaking, World Series-winning team to be released later in the year.
Following any baseball team for a 162-game season will be no easy task, and the docuseries took years of planning. According to MLB.com’s Ian Browne, discussions for the series began in 2021, and they didn’t include the Red Sox at that time. Boston came into the conversation about 18 months ago, CEO Sam Kennedy said to Browne.
The Red Sox and Netflix have announced a collaboration at a strange time for the team
Kennedy also called the series “one of the largest marketing initiatives [the Red Sox] have ever undertaken.” That statement puts some of the team’s offseason decisions into perspective.
Maybe the front office believed they could punt on the 2024 season because they’d make enough money through the series’ marketing to recoup the losses. Maybe it’d bring attention to a franchise that talented players have come to dismiss over recent seasons. Or … it could just be distracting to the guys in the clubhouse. A 162-game season is already a grind — having a film crew along with a social media team in the players’ space all the time probably isn’t conducive to producing the highest-possible quality product on the field.
On a more optimistic front, Jordan Montgomery and Jorge Soler still remain unemployed for the coming season. Maybe the Sox are waiting for the cameras to start rolling to make their biggest moves to draw interest back to the team and to the docuseries.
Boston could promote its rising stars in Triston Casas, Brayan Bello, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and more. The coming season could be Alex Cora’s last with the team. There are a lot of intriguing storylines to follow.
If the Red Sox are going to have their every move filmed this offseason, it would make sense to have big things planned rather than to put out a mediocre team and be fine with it. Red Sox Nation would never let the organization get away with throwing the season away on camera for the entire country to see.
Boston could have big things coming. Theo Epstein is back in the front office, at least a little bit, and his purchase of a stake in Fenway Sports Group could be just a small part of a potential upswing for the Red Sox.
Maybe Fenway Park could be full of away fans and tourists, and the Boston season that gets documented could be one of the worst in recent memory.
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