The Boston Red Sox Sunday, March 22, 2020 * The Boston Globe MLB still hasn’t concluded whether 2018 Red Sox illegally stole signs Peter Abraham Major League Baseball has not yet reached any conclusions in its investigation into whether the 2018 Red Sox illegally stole signs, two industry sources told the Globe on Saturday. On Friday, oral arguments in a US District Court case involving MLB, the Red Sox, and the Houston Astros suggested that baseball had finished its investigation. In answering a question from Judge Jed Rakoff, Red Sox attorney Lauren Moskowitz said the team did not admit to breaking any MLB rules. “Your Honor, I think that there are distinctions between what the Red Sox believe occurred and what the commissioner found,” Moskowitz said. “And I think that certainly they’re entitled to disagree that that activity happened at the club level.” Sources said there was confusion differentiating between the 2017 incident, when the Red Sox were fined for using a Fitbit device to relay signs to the dugout, and what may have happened in 2018. Rakoff heard arguments as to whether a lawsuit filed by daily fantasy sports players should be dismissed. The Sox, Astros, and MLB are defendants. Rakoff has said he will decide if the case moves forward by April 15. MLB’s investigation into allegations about the 2018 Red Sox was once expected to be finished before the start of spring training. But further interviews were required, setting back that timetable. Baseball was then shut down by the coronavirus pandemic, and league officials have since been busy addressing the ramifications of that situation. Baseball fan Tom Brady had some memorable days at Fenway Park Peter Abraham Sarah McKenna is the senior vice president of fan services and entertainment with the Red Sox. You may not know her name, but you’re quite familiar with her work. One of McKenna’s responsibilities is to coordinate the pregame ceremonies at Fenway Park. If you have warm memories of seeing David Ortiz honored, World Series rings handed out or banners raised, McKenna was orchestrating it all. The Springfield native started with the Red Sox in 2002, coming over from the San Diego Padres where she had worked with Larry Lucchino and Dr. Charles Steinberg. McKenna also has something in common with Bill Belichick: She had the authority to tell Tom Brady what to do. In 2002, after the Patriots beat the St. Louis Rams for the first of their six Super Bowl championships, many of the players gathered at Fenway Park for the home opener on April 1 against the Toronto Blue Jays. A large group of Patriots players popped out from behind a large American flag draped over the Green Monster. Brady, wearing a baseball glove, was among them. With Lawyer Milloy holding the Lombardi Trophy aloft, the Patriots walked across left field. The group included Tedy Bruschi, Matt Chatham, Tebucky Jones, Troy Brown, and Ty Law. “There was a lot of excitement because it was the first time they had won the Super Bowl,” McKenna said. “The Patriots players had not been together for a while and they were all talking and enjoying the moment. They were as excited as we were.” But McKenna had a tight schedule to keep, so she stood on a chair and ordered the Patriots to line up and hit the field. “I had to yell at them,” she said. “And they’re very big guys in real life.” Brady and the other Patriots threw out their first pitches to Red Sox players and the ceremony was a big success. It was the start of a strong relationship between the Red Sox and Brady, which was no surprise given his connection to baseball. Brady was an 18th-round draft pick of the Montreal Expos in 1995 when he was a high school senior. Brady, a lefthanded-hitting catcher with a good arm, turned down the Expos to play football at Michigan. You know the rest of the story. Brady returned to Fenway in 2003 and took batting practice before a game. Brady stayed in the cage until he wrapped a home run around the Pesky Pole in right field. Brady came back to Fenway following the Super Bowl championships in 2004, ’15, and ’17. In 2015, Brady took some swings in the batting cage off Pedro Martinez, then threw a first pitch to Ortiz. The 2017 ceremony included Rob Gronkowski playfully grabbing the game jersey Brady had stolen from the locker room and returned to him. Gronk ran across the field before Brady tackled him. Brady also came to Fenway with his family for the ceremony commemorating the 100th anniversary of the park in 2012. “He was a big baseball fan,” McKenna said. Sox players also took part in ceremonies at Gillette Stadium after their championships. In 2018, Steve Pearce and Alex Cora grabbed photos with Brady and Belichick before the Patriots played the Packers. “It’s always fun to see our players interacting with the Patriots or the Celtics or the Bruins,” McKenna said. “There’s a lot of genuine mutual respect for what the teams have accomplished. “It’s a special thing what has happened in Boston with all the championships, and the players support each other. I’ve always thought that was such a cool thing.” McKenna is a Patriots fan, but she adhered to professional decorum and never asked Brady to pose for a photo or sign anything. “That’s just not something I would do,” she said, “but I have great memories of seeing him at Fenway and I hope he does well with the Buccaneers. The Patriots have always been great for us to deal with. “I think they’ll be fine, too. One thing about them, they want to win just like we do. The Krafts will do what it takes.” RISKY BUSINESS Sox were too hasty with Sale It was a year ago Monday that the Red Sox announced they had signed Chris Sale to a five-year, $145 million extension that would start in 2020. How does that deal look now? Sale will not be ready to pitch for the Sox until June 2021 at the earliest. Depending on how players are paid for this season, Sale will receive roughly $40 million from the Sox without appearing in a game. Some of that money is deferred, but however the accounting works, it’s now a terrible contract for the Sox. What struck me when I looked back at the story I wrote a year ago was this comment from Sale: “I made it very adamant at the very beginning of all this that I wanted to stay here.” Dave Dombrowski said something similar, that Sale wanting to stay with the Red Sox helped the deal come together. The lefthander placed a lot of value in the idea of being able to live at home with his family during the two months of spring training. Knowing Sale, that wasn’t just talk. He is from Lakeland, Fla., went to Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers (where he met his wife), and lives in Naples. The Red Sox were the perfect team for him. So what was the rush to make a deal a full season ahead of free agency? The Sox should have waited until after the season to negotiate with Sale. Instead, he went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA and missed the final six weeks with a sore elbow. Dombrowski said at the time the deal was advantageous to the Sox because it was structured in a way to count as $25.6 million against the luxury tax, and offered the Red Sox greater flexibility. “There was give and take, which we appreciated,” Dombrowski said. The Sox also wanted to avoid the mistake they made with Jon Lester in 2014. But Lester was healthy after the 2013 championship. Sale was dealing with a sore shoulder for much of the second half of 2018. The better risk for the Sox would have been to wager on that same spirit of cooperation being there in October. Instead, they put their faith in Sale staying healthy and lost. A few other observations about the Red Sox: ▪ Now that Mookie Betts and David Price have been traded and Sale is done for this season, the Sox should take full advantage of the situation and commit to rebuilding. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was honest Thursday when he acknowledged the loss of Sale would make it difficult to contend. “Chris Sale is the type of player you can’t just replace,” he said. “He is an elite performer and those guys are hard to come by … that’s a big blow. “There’s been a lot of other things on our plate. But it obviously is going to make our climb that much harder. As we’ve said and as we’ve talked about since the beginning of the spring and before, it’s never about just one season. We’re always going to make sure we’re looking to bolster our long-term outlook as well.” Bloom went on to say the 2020 season remains their focus, and of course he should say that. The season hasn’t even started yet. But the Sox are not good enough to win with the rotation they have. Once the season starts, they should consider trading anybody outside of Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Bloom’s strength as an executive should be making trades that bring back young, cost-controlled talent. That is something Tampa Bay specialized in.