Sean McDonough of ESPN had his regular segment with The Greg Hill Show on WEEI yesterday and when the topic came to the Red Sox, he did not pull any punches.
The segment started off with some rather humorous skiing talk as McDonough made it very clear he is not a good skier nor does he enjoy it. He then told a great story about trying to get down a slope in the French Alps during the Winter Olympics in Albertville, France with teammate Lesly Visser.
The conversation then turned to the Red Sox. Host Greg Hill asked McDonough about his thoughts on the offseason the Red Sox have had.
“I am wondering if you share the same concern that I do,” asked Hill. “Which is this team finished in last place last year, has finished in last place three of the last four years and based on what (Red Sox President and CEO) Sam Kennedy said over the weekend that they are, this year, spending less than they did last year. Is that a concern of yours when it comes to the expectation that they would improve?”
“Yes,” replied McDonough.
He then continued, “How have they improved? I don’t think they’ve improved and at the very least, based on what I’ve read, if you’re waiting for these young prospects…don’t say ‘we are going full throttle this winter’ – what did that mean? Don’t raise people’s expectations and then you don’t do anything, which is what they did. It is hard to imagine they’re going to be better. What have they done this winter to be better?”
McDonough has called Red Sox games on radio since 2019 and previously called their games on television. He told the show he had selfish reasons to wanting the Red Sox to be an improved team. “I’m only salty because I just agreed to do more games for this fine radio station and the Red Sox network,” McDonough said. “And most of them will be in July and August after I get done with the Stanley Cup Playoffs and it’s not fun when they are 20 games out of first place in July.”
He then added about this coming season, “You want to do games that are meaningful and fans want to go to games that are meaningful. The prospect of that is low, given recent results…and the ‘nothing burger’ that they’ve done this winter.”
