June second 2018 The Sox are facing Justin Verlander and the Astros in Houston, David Price is on the hill for the Sox and the Boston bats are quick timely and woke . JD Martinez looks like an RBI machine driving in Benintendi in the first and Bogaerts in the sixth inning. Vazquez and Benny baseball go yard in the 7th and Kimbrell lockes down his 19th save of the season The Sox are 40 and 19 and life is good ………
At the end of 2018 the Sox stood alone atop the MLB mountain, 108 wins and a world series title. Dombrowski watched Cora manage his ass off all year, every move he made from the bench worked out. He saw Alex juggle his starters and bullpen into a juggernaut in the postseason. Dombrowski  was full of himself and went into the off-season with a lazy mindset and a full belief that Cora would win with whatever tools he put on his belt.
Postseason heros Steve Pearce and Nathan Eovaldi were almost immediately inked to extensions while guys like Joe Kelly and Kimbrel were allowed to walk . Last years starting rotation was 5th in MLB at this point of the season and finished 8th while this year they match their teams output and hang at 15th in all of baseball. While the vaunted lineup that lead the Majors most of last season and is still flirting with the top five have been less timely and less clutch ( yes folks clutch is a thing ) . In short the when this team pitches well it can’t hit and when it hits it doesn’t pitch well. And when that’s the case you get a .500 ballclub. And here we are on June second with exactly that
With a completely depleted farm and an unwillingness to go over the Luxury Tax threshold can Dombrowski fix what’s broken here ? No .Only Cora and the players can do that now. This is the hand they and you have been dealt. I said at the beginning of the 2019 season that what we witnessed was a once in a lifetime year, do not expect the same outcome. But not you or I saw this coming, Dombrowski and the front office should have.
As always you can follow / give me grief on Twitter @Tmurph207