The Saturday, April 25, 2020

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Thoughts on the Red Sox punishment, Gronk’s un-retirement, and other picked-up pieces

Dan Shaughnessy

Picked-up pieces while rooting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go 0-16 …

▪ The Red Sox look weak for letting J.T. Watkins, a low-level employee, and a West Point grad no less, take the hit for their latest cheating scandal.

It’s a Big Nothing to the fanboys, but at least 11 Sox “witnesses” told MLB that they concluded Watkins had broken the rules by supplying them with information gained illegally. It’s certainly possible to assume most or all used the information. They all knew. And none of them were identified or punished.

The Sox baseball boss and also were absolved even though they’d been instructed that the team would be punished for future infractions after the Apple Watch incident in 2017. Nope. It was all J.T. Watkins. This 30-year-old guy had the power to move the video room at to a spot next to the dugout. All by himself.

Not a proud day for the Boston franchise.

▪ It’s incredible to discover that it was J.T. Watkins who made the decision to leave Bill Buckner in the game at Shea Stadium in 1986. And upon further review, I have learned that it was J.T. Watkins who procured the chicken and beer for the Red Sox clubhouse during the collapse in 2011. I’m also hearing that Ed Davis has identified J.T. Watkins as a “person of interest” in his ongoing investigation in the Dominican Republic.

▪ left the Red Sox in a blaze of glory compared with Rob Gronkowski’s messy departure from New England.

We all love Gronk. Greatest tight end of all time. Played hurt and played hard. Good to all charities and never got in trouble. But he put the screws to the Patriots on his way out the door. He strung everybody along, then “retired,” just in time to ruin planning for the 2019 season.

Now after all the sales pitches in which he sounded like a young man who needed to be done with football (Gronk said he’d suffered “like 20 concussions”), he’s coming back to party and play with QB/GM Tom Brady in the Tampa funhouse. (Looking like a boy-band member these days, Gronk will have go to back into “training” to regain his football body.)

It’s nauseating. These guys have turned into NBA-type divas, social media mavens demonstrating amazing tone deafness while the country endures a pandemic. So now Gronk and TB12 are united in Tampa, away from bully Bill Belichick. Maybe they can get Jules to join them. Why not AB?

Swell. I’ll be hate-watching every one of their games. Put me down as honorary captain of Team Bill.

▪ When Football Games Saved Lives: A Wall Street Journal story promoted a theory that the Chiefs’ victory over the 49ers in this year’s Super Bowl might have had hidden blessings.

There were only a few known COVID-19 patients in the US on Super Bowl Sunday, but two were in Santa Clara County and a small group of local doctors was dealing with those cases when the Chiefs beat the Niners in Miami Feb. 2. A 49ers victory would have resulted in a San Francisco parade, a massive gathering, and tremendous risk for transmission of the virus.

"It may go down in the annals as being a brutal sports loss, but one that saved lives,'' Dr. Bob Wachter (chair of UCSF’s department of medicine) told the Journal.

The Bay area’s inadvertent good fortune reminded me of the lives saved when Holy Cross’s gridders stunned No. 1-ranked and Orange Bowl-bound Boston College at Fenway Park, 55-12, on Nov. 28, 1942.

BC-HC was a big deal in those days, and a BC victory party at Boston’s Cocoanut Grove nightclub was canceled as a result of the upset. Four hundred and 92 souls died, and hundreds more were injured in a fire at the Cocoanut Grove just a few hours after the football game.

▪ One of my wiseguy readers suggests that sports returning to empty ballparks and stadiums can compensate for the silence by pumping in artificial crowd noise like the Colts in Indianapolis and the Falcons in Atlanta.

▪ QUIZ: 1. Name the major leaguer with the most career homers who never hit 30 in a season; 2. Name the only high school hockey player to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. Hint: he’s local. (Answers below.)

▪ Watching the epic Celtics-Sixers 1981 Game 7 conference final, I saw Cedric Maxwell miss four straight free throws late in the game. I texted Max to ask him about this, and while the game was still airing, Max fired back with, "I’m sure I made up for it.''

He did. Max went on to become MVP of the ’81 NBA Finals.

When the 2020 Celtics were in Los Angeles in February, Max participated in an old-timers panel of former Celtics and Lakers. Proof that the Celtics forever take up space in those Lakers heads, Michael Cooper insisted that Lisa Leslie in her prime could have scored at will against Max.

▪ Texted to ask if we are going to see him in future episodes of ESPN’s excellent “The Last Dance” documentary. Francona was Michael Jordan’s manager with the Birmingham Barons in 1994. Tito replied, "I heard I got 15 seconds of fame. And not a second more. LOL.''

Back in 2012, here’s what Francona told me about the Jordan experience: "The first question he asked me was, ‘Do we fly?’ No. We had major bus trips everywhere. The shortest ride was 3½ hours. It was 16 or 17 hours from Memphis to Orlando and we did that.

"He said, ‘What if I can get us a better bus?’ The next day, there were four buses in the parking lot. It was a bus audition. One of the buses was for a touring rock band. We ended up riding in a new bus. Michael signed the door, so they called it ‘the Jordan cruiser.' ’'

Francona was still athletic in those days and played pickup hoop with Jordan a couple of times. When Tito took the last shot in a best-to-11 game, Jordan told him, "I always take the last shot.'' The manager replied, "Now you know how I feel when I watch you try to hit a curveball.''

Jordan hit .202 with 51 RBIs and 30 stolen bases for Francona’s Double A Barons.

▪ Can’t believe the Sox allowed J.T. Watkins to persuade them to sign Chris Sale and Nate Eovaldi to giant contract extensions after the 2018 .

▪ Baseball lifer Jim Frey died at the age of 88 April 12. A Cincinnati high school teammate of ’s, Frey was first base of ’s Orioles when I covered the team daily in 1977-79.

During the Red Sox collapse of 1978, it was Frey who relayed this exchange with Boston first baseman George Scott while Boomer was rolling out grounders to Sox infielders before the start of an inning:

“I said, 'Boomer, you guys had this big lead and now it’s down to four or five games. What the hell is going on with you guys?’ And Boomer said to me, ‘Some of these guys are choking, man.’ ” (Scott soon went into an 0-for-34 slump.)

When Cy Young winner Mike Flanagan reached first base in a game, Frey told him, "Keep your left foot on the bag and get as big a lead as you can with your right foot.''

Frey left the Orioles to manage the and wound up in the . For a young reporter, it was a big deal to know the manager of the AL champs, so I asked Frey if he would acknowledge me by name when I asked a question at the massive pre-World Series press conference. I figured it would make me look good. Frey laughed and agreed.

When I asked my question, Frey leaned into the microphone, looked out at the hundreds of reporters, and said, "Well, DAN . . . that’s a stupid question!''

RIP Jim Frey.

▪ NESN needs to do a better job vetting old content. A 1987 “Forever Fenway: 75 Years of Red Sox Baseball” documentary re-aired April 10, still featuring an interview with the late Don Fitzpatrick. “Fitzy” was the infamous clubhouse attendant who sexually assaulted young clubhouse workers for more than a decade while employed by the Red Sox.

▪ Why didn’t and Dr. Charles Steinberg go with “The Polar Grounds” instead of "Polar Park,'' for the Worcester Red Sox’ new stadium name?

▪ Quarantine reading: Check out “Fenway 1946: Red Sox, Peace, and a Year of Hope” by Michael Connelly.

▪ It turns out that J.T. Watkins is the one who lowballed Jon Lester in the spring of 2014.

▪ Quiz answers: 1. Al Kaline, 399 homers. 2. Bobby Carpenter of St. John’s Prep in 1981.

Anxious sports fans wonder when they will get their ticket money back

Michael Silverman

Boston sports fans want more than their teams to get back to playing games. They want their money back.

Based on the latest available Forbes figures, the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and Revolution are holding more than roughly $100 million in combined ticket sales for games that have been postponed between March and the end of May because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The road to a refund, however, is something of a roundabout. The fine print says postponed games aren’t eligible for refunds, only officially canceled games are. Teams are telling fans their hands are tied by the leagues, and the leagues won’t say the word “cancellation” because the 2020 seasons remain on hold.

With enduring peak pandemic conditions in the second half of April, coronavirus cases and deaths on the rise nationwide, and public health experts saying that if and when sports resume, they will be watched on TV and not from the stands, the calendar and common sense point toward the reality that tickets for some postponed games at Fenway Park, TD Garden, and Gillette Stadium are destined to be refunded.

Glen Thornborough, chief revenue officer for the Bruins, said there’s been “an awful lot of Zoom calls” between the team and the NHL over ticketing and marketing issues affecting fans.

“It’s such unchartered waters, we’re all trying to do what’s best,” Thornborough said.

The four local teams (because of the timing of the NFL schedule, the Patriots are sitting out the ticket- refund dilemma) all indicated a willingness to answer questions, address concerns, and expedite solutions with their ticket-holders.

The teams emphasized that their leagues have granted them autonomy to resolve a situation involving any ticket-holder who is undergoing economic hardship, possibly including an immediate refund, but it is up to individuals to initiate that discussion.

Zineb Curran, vice president for corporate communication for the Red Sox, said the team is being responsive when ticket-holders let them know of a hardship or an issue.

“Our efforts have been directly coordinated with MLB and we plan to share any formal plans related to the schedule when they are finalized,” Curran said in an e-mail.

“In the meantime, our longstanding ticket policies remain in place: tickets to rescheduled games will be good for the rescheduled contest; games that are canceled and not rescheduled will be refunded at face value.”

Local ticket re-seller Ace Ticket is offering refunds for most tickets it sold to Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and Revolution games, but Ace is an outlier in the resale market.

On Monday in California, two frustrated baseball fans, one holding tickets to a Yankees-Red Sox game in May, filed a federal lawsuit against , all 30 teams, and ticket re-sellers, a case that could turn into a nationwide class-action suit.

Industry giant StubHub faces a federal lawsuit in Wisconsin, with an NHL ticket-holder filing a $5 million class-action case alleging StubHub breached its contract by changing its policy for coronavirus-impact reasons late in March and only offering 120 percent StubHub vouchers for future use rather than the choice of getting a full refund.

StubHub sells and buys tickets from individuals. Ace Ticket’s business model is different; it buys ticket inventory directly from teams and their ticket vendors.

Ace owner Jim Holzman has seen his sales plummet 90 percent since the NBA shut down March 11. Instead of selling thousands of tickets a day, he said he now sells four. He is using the profits he’s made over the last decade to keep his $60 million company moving forward and retaining his 40 employees because “that’s my responsibility as a business owner, I accept that.”

It’s also why he is offering refunds to every possible buyer who bought a ticket to a local game through his company. Sometimes that’s not possible because of transferability issues concerning electronic tickets, but otherwise, Holzman sees it as his duty to have given refunds to “thousands of Red Sox tickets and hundreds of Celtics and Bruins.”

Holzman has processed 13 April Red Sox games and is getting to the 16 games in May next.

“I’m taking a risk there; if the Red Sox don’t do refunds, I’m holding the bag there, but I owe it to customers to do the right thing,” said Holzman. “April games aren’t being played, so how can I hold somebody’s money for games that aren’t being played?

"We’re trying to do the right thing. Even though they aren’t giving refunds, we are.”

Some fans are puzzled The Red Sox hold the lion’s share of $70 million or more of estimated unused gate receipts from 29 missed games in April and May.

Red Sox season ticket-holder Pat Fenton said he has been receiving Red Sox-themed crossword puzzles and word scrambles in e-mails from the team, but has gotten no word about what will happen with the money he started to pay the team back in December for games that will not be played in April and May.

“I wish the Red Sox were proactive about it,” said Fenton, who spends $3,400 a year for his two season tickets. “I think it would have been nice for them to reach out when games started and say, ‘We know games were supposed to start this week, we’ll be in touch when we have a solution from Major League Baseball.’

"Communication could have been better.”

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office said it has started hearing from people about refunds for sporting events and other event cancellations. Since March 1, the office had heard 107 complaints. The office said it is monitoring all of the complaints closely, and that it is encouraging people with tickets to games and events to deal directly with organizers when asking for refunds.

Not counting 2020-21 season ticket revenues starting to come in, the Celtics collected approximately $18 million-plus for their last nine unplayed games, with the Bruins at $16 million-plus for six postponed games. The Revolution have roughly $2 million-plus for eight postponed games through May.

Jay Pinsonnault paid $3,400 for 174 tickets for a group outing with his son’s baseball league to a May 6 game at Fenway Park. After contacting the Red Sox group ticket sales office, he was told last Monday that his credit card would be refunded.

But Pinsonnault said it’s been “radio silence” from the Red Sox when it comes to the fate of the $24,424 he is paying for his eight 2020 season tickets at Fenway Park.

Along with the Celtics, the Bruins offered a one-month reprieve on 2020-21 season ticket renewals, delaying the April payment into May, because of the coronavirus. The Revolution offered a no-cost deferral option for the April 15 payment due for ticket-holders on a payment plan.

Both the Red Sox and Revolution are still selling tickets to the 2020 season, with May 19 as the first available game for sale on the Red Sox website, June 20 for the Revolution. MLB has postponed games only through mid-May, with MLS’s season on hold through June 6.

Frustration is apparent Holzman is sympathetic to the teams’ financial losses. If his Ace Ticket office is getting deluged with calls from fans asking about the status of games, then “I’m sure the teams are getting overwhelmed," he said.

“We’re all stressed and irritated, we’re all looking for good news," he said. "Now’s the time to be sympathetic to people who have lost jobs or loved ones. You have to have a heart. Sometimes it’s not just about business; you have to have a heart.

“As the weeks go by, you hear people’s frustrations increasing. They’re mad at Ticketmaster for not allowing them to give them a refund and they’re mad at the teams for not giving them a refund.

“People paid for seats. They’re frustrated at the situation. They purchased a ticket because they really wanted to go to an event. They’re frustrated they can’t go to that event, they don’t know when that event is, and they can’t get their money back.”

While everyone waits, ticket money remains with the teams, not only for this season’s games but for next season as well.

“When the season was suspended, all of a sudden you got an e-mail saying, ‘Hey, your monthly payments for next year start soon’ and you’re like, ‘What the hell, you guys haven’t even finished this season yet. We’re still paying for this season and now you want us to pay for next season?’ ” said Brian Maloney, who has held Celtics season tickets for the last six years.

“That’s my biggest complaint. We’re still paying thousands of dollars and we’re going to be paying that all the way through the summer for next year’s games when this year wasn’t finalized.

"The only communication we’ve received is it’s a ‘fluid situation, we’re waiting to hear back from the NBA on if games are going to be played’ — which they’re obviously not going to be, especially without fans.”

According to a Celtics spokesperson, "Our ticketing staff has been working very closely with our season ticket members to provide payment flexibility to those who have requested it. Our focus is on the relationship with our members and finding solutions that fit each individual financial situation and to make sure the flexibility is clearly communicated.”

Could Alex Cora’s return to baseball begin in Puerto Rico?

Julian McWilliams

Alex Cora’s baseball career could be revived where it originally started: Puerto Rico

Cora, who is from Puerto Rico, could be the team’s general manager or manager in the 2021 World Baseball Classic, according Jose Quiles, the president of the Puerto Rican Baseball Federation.

“Of course we’ll consider it,” Quiles relayed to Primera Hora, a daily newspaper in Puerto Rico . “We already know the work that he does. He will be considered as much for the general manager position as he is for the manager spot.”

Cora was the team’s general manager in 2017 when the club went on an unprecedented run to the title game against the United States. Though the club lost, 8-0, it was the start of Cora’s meteoric rise in the baseball ranks.

Cora is in the midst of a 2020 suspension for his involvement in the ’ sign-stealing scandal as bench coach in 2017. As manager for the Red Sox, Cora also found himself in the middle of yet another sign-stealing investigation surrounding the Sox’ 2018 team, but he was recently exonerated of any wrongdoing. Instead, 30-year-old replay operator J.T. Watkins was held responsible for occasionally using the video monitor to steal other teams’ signs. Quiles believes that Cora was the scapegoat in all of this for a problem he feels is league-wide

Cora is still held in high regard by the Sox’ front office. The Red Sox brass believe he deserves another shot.

“I do. That’s my personal feeling,” Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said. “He does need to go through a rehab process. What he did was wrong. He acknowledged that to us and apologized to us. I’m a big believer in second chances, so we all wish him well.”

That could certainly be Cora’s start to a new chapter.

* The Boston Herald

Red Sox punishment for sign-stealing won’t deter cheating

Tom Keegan

None of the cheating Red Sox players were punished or even identified. The organization was penalized by surrendering its 2020 second-round draft choice. And the no-name video-replay-room guy is now the no- pay, ex-video-replay-room guy.

Commissioner Rob Manfred, who represents the billionaire owners, sent a clear message to the millionaire ballplayers he is charged to oversee: Continue to cheat without fear of consequence, and if you get caught, we’ll find somebody from outside our country club and income bracket to take the fall. We’ll blame it on the help.

The fall guy in this case is J.T. Watkins. His new nickname is The Scapegoat.

Manfred’s ruling on the Red Sox sign-stealing scandal of 2018 was akin to the NCAA punishing Saginaw Valley State and letting Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller keep on doing what he’s doing.

Put the blame on the nameless, faceless peasant who easily can be replaced, largely let the Red Sox off easy, and move along children; there is nothing to see here.

Red Sox CEO and president Sam Kennedy doesn’t quite see it that way.

“The organization is facing a severe penalty,” Kennedy said. “A second-round draft pick is extremely valuable. … An individual is being held accountable, and we accept the findings and we move on. There are rules and regulations that we all sign up for, that we all need to abide by, and we’re going to do that.”

Except some of the players didn’t abide by the rules. And the Red Sox organization has had an awfully tough time memorizing the rule book.

In 2016, five Red Sox prospects were granted free agency because the organization was found guilty of overpaying non-prospects from Latin America with the understanding that some of that money would be funneled to actual prospects, a way of skirting the limits placed on signing bonuses.

In 2017, the Red Sox were found guilty of using Apple Watches to steal signs.

In 2018, the cheating shifted to the video-replay room, apparently headed by a criminal mastermind.

If we are to treat the commissioner’s report as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then we are to believe that Watkins knew the rules, but the players weren’t as up to speed. Clearly, this was a case of a bad seed leading Boy Scouts astray.

“Those who suspected that Watkins was using the replay system largely did not understand that it was a violation of the rules because the evolving rules landscape had not been adequately explained to players,” the report stated.

So Watkins knowingly broke the rules by using in-game video to decode signs and was hammered, and ignorance sufficed as a defense for the players.

Who failed to educate the players?

“At the end of the day, we all clearly could have done a better job, and we need to do a better job as we go forward,” Kennedy said.

Everybody but Watkins, docked a year’s pay in 2020 and prohibited from working in the video-replay room in 2021, will get the chance to “do a better job.”

The son of Mobile, Ala.-based scout Danny Watkins, J.T. was a standout at West Point, drafted by the Red Sox in the 10th round in 2012. In a minor-league career interrupted by two years of service in the Army, Watkins batted .184 in 294 at-bats. His dream of becoming the first West Point graduate to play in the major leagues didn’t last long. Sadly, he finally has made a name for himself, and in the process has learned that if you’re not a member of the millionaires and billionaires club, you had better be ready to take the fall. This is not West Point, where the honor code states: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do.”

This is MLB, where the reality is that if you’re a nobody who is not in the club and you lie, cheat or tolerate those who do, you’ll pay dearly. Those in the club will either skate or get tapped gently on the wrist.

Studying recent draft history helps to gauge the severity of surrendering the 52nd overall pick. Let’s look at a 10-year period from 2005 through 2014, which goes back far enough for even high school players to have developed.

2005: Daniel Carte, OF, Rockies: Never made it past Double A.

2006: Sean Watson, RHP, Reds: Went 18-21 with a 4.13 ERA in six seasons in the minors.

2007: Matt Mangini, 3B, Mariners: Hit .211 in his only 38 big-league at-bats in 2010 and retired from the minors in 2012.

2008: Brad Hand, LHP, Marlins: A reliever with the Indians, his third organization, he is the second-most successful player on this list. Has a 24-42 record in the big leagues.

2009: Everett Williams, OF, Padres: Never made it past Double A.

2010: Allie Stetson, RHP, Pirates: Signed by the Red Sox in February and assigned to Pawtucket, Stetson has gone 8-5, 6.52 in the minors and never has pitched more than 42 innings in a season.

2011: Blake Snell, LHP, Rays: Ding, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner, a Cy Young Award winner in 2018, when he went 21-5 with a 1.89 ERA.

2012: Patrick Wisdom, 3B, Cardinals: At age 28, he’s with the Mariners, his third organization, and was set to start the season in the minors. In 76 career at-bats with the Cardinals and Rangers, he hit .224.

2013: Justin Williams, SS, Diamondbacks: Converted to the outfield, he’s in his third organization, the Cardinals, where he was slated to start the season in Triple A. He bounced into a double play in his only big-league at-bat, with the Rays in 2018.

2014: Aramis Garcia, C, Giants: Has hit .229 in 105 big-league at-bats.

Based on that history lesson on the No. 52 pick, there is a 10% chance the penalty imposed on the Red Sox would one day rise to the level of severe. Regardless of what value you place on the pick, it doesn’t change how troubling it is that everyone seems just fine with pinning it all on a faceless scapegoat.

* MassLive.com

David Ortiz says Red Sox sign stealing penalties were unfair: ‘It’s what everybody’s doing in the league right now’

Chris Cotillo

David Ortiz wasn’t happy with the punishment Major League Baseball handed down to the Red Sox for stealing signs in 2018.

Appearing on FOX with Kevin Burkhardt and Alex Rodriguez on Friday, Ortiz said he believed MLB’s decision to strip the Red Sox of a second-round draft pick and suspend video assistant J.T. Watkins was too harsh.

“They were searching trying to find out if anything that happened in Houston happened in Boston,” Ortiz said. “Basically, it wasn’t even close to a similar situation. What happened in Boston is what everybody’s doing in the league right now. I think the punishment was not fair, to be honest with you.”

In January, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred found that the Astros used a center-field video camera to relay signs to players during games in 2017 and punished them harshly, handing one-year suspensions to then-manager A.J. Hinch and then-general manager Jeff Luhnow, stripping four draft picks and fining Houston $5 million. This week, Manfred found little in the way of wrongdoing by the Red Sox but did determine that, at least on some occasions, Watkins broke MLB rules by using the video replay room to relay signs to players during game.

“You’re going to bring a video guy, suspend him for (one year) just because he’s watching what the are giving?” Ortiz continued. “Fastball, slider, breaking ball, changeup. Telling the player so the player can use it on the field? That’s what everybody’s doing. I don’t call that cheating. I think it was more of an excuse than anything else. That’s how I feel about it.”

Ortiz and Rodriguez both said players had been trying to steal signs from the catcher during games for as long as they could remember. The introduction of more technology in baseball has led to a temptation to bend and break baseball’s rules governing the use of in-game video.

“Players try to stay ahead of the game,” Ortiz said. “It’s a hard game to play. I’m not saying that cheating is something fair, but the way players normally do it for forever, they try to pick signs from the catcher so they can pass it to the hitter.”

* RedSox.com

NESN to air every Red Sox '04 postseason win

Ian Browne

BOSTON -- The postseason that might never be topped in Red Sox history will be there for fans to relive on NESN over the next two weeks.

The year we speak of is 2004, when Boston at last snapped an 86-year World Series championship drought.

NESN will air every win from that magical playoff run starting on Monday night, with Game 1 of the Division Series sweep of the Angels. Each game will start at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Curt Schilling led the Red Sox to victory in Game 1 in Anaheim, but he also reinjured his right ankle late in that game, which became a major factor for the rest of that year’s postseason.

In Game 2 of that ALDS on Tuesday, you can watch Pedro Martinez outduel Bartolo Colon.

The best game of that series airs on Wednesday, when David Ortiz won the Game 3 clincher with a walk- off homer to left that vaulted the Red Sox into the AL Championship Series against the Yankees.

On Thursday, it's on to the ALCS with the epic Game 4 -- known best for the steal by Dave Roberts that saved the season. Big Papi ended the instant classic with a walk-off homer in the 12th.

On May 1, there is another classic. That would be Game 5, when Ortiz again ends the game with one swing -- this time in the 14th inning.

And on May 2, you get Schilling and his bloody sock forcing the amazing series to a Game 7.

On May 3, NESN will take a quick break from the 2004 postseason to broadcast Game 5 of the , when Dave Henderson smashed a home run against the Angels when the Red Sox were one strike from elimination. That game will start at 7 p.m. ET.

Starting on May 4, NESN will continue with the rest of the 2004 postseason. That schedule will be released next week.

* NBC Sports Boston

Draft changes mean loss of second round pick will hit Red Sox harder in 2020

John Tomase

When the punishment came down on the Red Sox for illegally decoding signs in 2018, most of us scoffed at how lightly they got off, losing just one second round draft pick.

Within the baseball operations department, however, that punishment is considered significant, particularly because of changes to this year's draft.

With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on business of all sizes, baseball has looked for ways to cut expenses. The MLBPA recently agreed to one of them — shortening the draft — because amateur players aren't part of the union, which has been more than willing over the years to decrease draft money in exchange for greater guarantees for its members.

Instead of the usual 40 rounds, this year's draft — which is scheduled for June, but could be moved to July — will only cover either five or 10 rounds. The rest of the players who would normally be drafted will instead become free agents, with bonuses capped at $20,000.

Tomase: Why MLB's punishment for Red Sox was shameful If the draft ends up being only five rounds, then the Red Sox will lose 20 percent of their selections, as well as a vital chunk of their bonus pool, and that's a bitter pill to swallow for a front office tasked with rebuilding a decimated farm system.

"The potential limitations of the draft this year obviously make that punishment loom larger," acknowledged chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Wednesday. "It's significant. The second round pick, typically with that type of pick you get one of the top two or three dozen picks in the country, depending how your board lines up in a given year. That's significant. There have been some really outstanding second round picks in the history of this organization. As we look to compete and make sure we have our pipeline full, you want to make sure you have every possible avenue to add talent to the organization and this is one. That particular pick is one we won't have. That's significant, but we understand and respect the penalty the commissioner levied."

Bloom's not wrong about the Red Sox finding impact players in the second round. They've drafted a pair of MVPs and Rookies of the Year there — Fred Lynn and Dustin Pedroia — as well as All-Star left-hander Jon Lester and 2006 NLCS MVP Jeff Suppan.

Losing the pick will also cost the Red Sox money. Per Baseball America, the pick they lost at No. 52 overall included a bonus slot value of $1,403,200, which was 21.5 percent of their entire pool. They'll now have $5,111,100 to spend in a five-round draft instead of $6,514,300.