The anger aimed at John W. Henry and his Fenway Sports Group organization was obvious after they had been the target of jeers from some Boston Red Sox fans who had congregated at Fenway Park to witness the NHL Winter Classic between the Boston Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins earlier this week.
FSG, the company that owns Liverpool, the Boston Red Sox, and the Pittsburgh Penguins among other businesses, has come under fire on both sides of the Atlantic for what has been seen as a perceived lack of investment during crucial periods that has now resulted in subpar performance.
Liverpool’s need for midfield reinforcements to aid their vital assault on the top four and success in the Champions League had seen the calls grown for FSG to either spend or leave, while the same calls were being heard in Boston where the loss of cornerstone franchise players Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts over the past two years, and inactivity during free agency this winter, had seen Red Sox fans demand that action be taken.
Rafael Devers, one of the Red Sox’s studs who had been rumored to be on his way as his contract expired and headed towards free agency, formally confirmed on Wednesday that he had signed a new one-year agreement with the team worth around $17.5 million. In order to give the Red Sox additional time to bargain with the 26-year-old Dominican third baseman, a two-time All Star, and to avoid arbitration, that decision was made.
The Red Sox and Devers, though, reached a longer-term agreement that was the largest in the team’s history just hours after that announcement, which was not well received on social media.
In order to keep Devers in Boston for the greatest years of his career, FSG reportedly approved an 11-year, monstrous $331 million (£275.2 million) deal for him. Although the agreement hasn’t been formally verified, when it is, it will rank as the sixth-largest in Major League Baseball history and the biggest ever reached by the Red Sox.
The self-sustaining model that had been so praised during the height of Liverpool’s dominance of European football from late 2018 to mid 2020 had now been met with enormous financial challenges when it came to replacing the players who had delivered such value for money, and there have been parallels between what has been happening for FSG in European football and baseball. The transfer market has turned into the Wild West, with astronomical sums and year-over-year increases in demand from supporters of all teams. Although there is still a desire to find value in their hiring, it is likely inevitable that Liverpool will have to join the rat race if they are to continue to grow.
While there is still a desire to seek value in their recruitment there is the almost inescapable fact that Liverpool will have to become part of the rat race if they are to maintain their competitiveness.
The same may be said about baseball’s current situation. For a team that is one of the most renowned and financially successful in baseball, Boston’s single placement in the top 10 of the biggest agreements inked does not sit well.
All but one of the ten most costly agreements in MLB history were made after 2019, with five of them being reached within the previous 12 months. Although the market hasn’t slowed down in the rise of payroll since the epidemic, club owners are burdened more by the additional expense of paying for the largest and greatest players in a sport that is struggling to hold the attention of the next generation.
It is a market that hasn’t seen slowed growth in the rise of payroll post pandemic, but in a sport that is facing a struggle to maintain the eyeballs of the next generation, the extra cost for paying for the biggest and best players creates an added burden on team owners and reduces the margins for profit.
A decision to keep Devers won’t make things right between FSG and Red Sox supporters, but it will at least demonstrate a commitment to the team’s future and fulfill a major desire of supporters to have a career Red Sox player tied down for the long term.
In order to raise some scalable capital to spend in the team as well as other areas of growth possibility and infrastructure, FSG is leaning toward a partial sale of the club, even if they are open to hearing major bids for Liverpool that are more than $4 billion. The management of FSG at Anfield appears to be continuing for a little bit longer, and if that is the case, Liverpool fans can anticipate the same approach that
The stewardship of FSG at Anfield looks set to continue for a little while yet, and if that is to be the case then Liverpool fans will be expecting that the same approach that has just been taken in Boston is taken in Liverpool, and that money is found to make the kind of long-term investment into the playing squad that the Reds require.
For comparison, the Red Sox earned $479 million (£398.2 million) in income in 2022, whereas analysts at the football business website Off The Pitch expect Liverpool to earn more than £600 million. For the Red Sox, a contract at that level for Devers would cost almost £25 million a year. For the sake of argument, Liverpool would earn about £32 million if they signed a player for £100 million, paid him £250,000 each week for six years, and amortized the transfer fee.
By offering Devers such a significant contract, FSG has committed to keeping the Red Sox competitive. The same level of dedication will now be expected at Liverpool, whether it be during this window or in the summer. However, the need for it to occur during the current window is increasingly pressing given the club’s desire to finish in the top four and continue to benefit from the £100 million plus annual bounty that the Champions League can provide.