Principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner spoke at length last weekend about the "tough" and "challenging" offseason that has begun for the Red Sox. Henry acknowledged that taking the reins of this team will be "a tough way to start your career as a general manager".
One big issue is the 2020 payroll. Henry says he is determined to get under the first Competitive Balance Threshold level, which is $208 million. The payroll in 2019 was approximately $240 million. "If you don't reset there are penalties, so we've known for some time now we needed to reset as other clubs [such as the MFY] have done.