Jake, Keaton, and Bob reminisce about the life of Tim Wakefield and the managerial career of Terry Francona, before attempting to fix the starting rotation from top to bottom in 2024.
Welcome back to The Red Seat Podcast, episode number 298. This week, Jake Devereaux, Keaton DeRocher, and Bob Osgood look back on the life and career of the great Tim Wakefield, the managerial career of Terry Francona, and attempt to piece together the various paths to fixing the starting rotation in 2024.
Tim Wakefield sadly passed away over the weekend at the age of 57. As someone we all watched from 1995 to 2011 through various eras of the Red Sox, we looked back on our favorite memories of Wake’s career, as well as his contributions to charity and his meaning to the organization off the field.
Terry Francona, Wakefield’s manager for eight seasons, managed his final MLB game on Sunday and we looked back on our favorite and funniest moments from Tito’s career.
After last week’s episode where we broke down the starting nine, we looked at overhauling the rotation this week. While we all agree that two significant pieces needed to be added to the staff, the three of us varied how to best approach that. We broke down free agent names that included Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Aaron Nola, Blake Snell, Sonny Gray, Jordan Montgomery, and more. We also talked about the option of trading for pitching if they are unable to find two pitchers in free agency. In what role do we see Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, Nick Pivetta, and Kutter Crawford next season, and could we see any of those players getting traded elsewhere?
We finished the show discussing some very thoughtful reader questions regarding Tim Wakefield, the chances of an Alex Verdugo trade, whether Alex Cora is still the right man for the dugout in 2024, some (very few) bright spots from 2023, and how Chaim Bloom’s farm system will be remembered.
If you have a question for an upcoming Red Seat pod, you can email us at redseatpodcast@gmail.com or tweet us. On Twitter, Jake is @DevJake, Keaton is @TheSpokenKeats and Bob is @BobOsgood15. We thank all of you for listening throughout this entire season and will continue to be recording in the offseason!