There’s a different attitude held by a majority of Red Sox Nation entering the 2020 season, and it’s not a pleasant one. If you feel like the offseason chewed you up, spit you out and then kicked you to the curb, you’re not alone. Alex Cora stepped down. Mookie Betts was traded. The team is still being investigated for cheating in 2018. But hey, at least we’re not Astros fans.
In an era where professional sports teams and leagues simply cannot seem to navigate their way through crises, the Astros became the latest domino to fall with their gross mishandling of public relations in response to the sign-stealing scandal. Whether it was the off-putting lack of remorse the players showed in their interviews, owner Jim Crane’s blatant contradiction in his press conference, or the lack of synchronicity throughout the organization; Houston delivered a five-star performance of how not to respond to a scandal. They immediately join the ranks of the NFL’s fumbling of the anthem protests and the NBA’s botched answer to their China crisis.
MLB will deliver Boston’s punishment for their involvement in the sign-stealing scandal soon as they wrap up their investigation of the 2018 team. It is now on the Red Sox to learn from these mistakes to avoid joining the Astros in baseball fans’ collective doghouse.
Multiple reports early this week noted that Commissioner Rob Manfred has all the materials he needs and is nearing a decision to conclude the investigation into the Red Sox. Though the Sox level of guilt is unknown, the players from the World Series-winning 2018 squad have maintained they are innocent from the start of the investigation.
Consistency is the main lesson the Red Sox should learn from the Astros mishaps. The Sox have presented a unified front that is usually strong with handling situations that may damage their reputation since the Fenway Sports Group took ownership. For example, when former manager Alex Cora stepped down it was presented well to the media as an unfortunate but necessary agreement between all parties involved, which it was. This scenario is different though, because Cora, the presumed center of the investigation, is obviously no longer with the team. Boston will need to be in close contact with Cora to ensure his statements are not damaging if they are found guilty, or not further incriminating if they are innocent.
There is also new pressure on manager Ron Roenicke. The 63-year-old manager is a veteran when it comes to handling clubhouse affairs, and he already spoke about the investigation casting a dark cloud over the beginning of spring training workouts.
Roenicke will be met with the challenge of ensuring that all of his players are on the same page when decision day comes. The Astros mismanaged this aspect of their damage control when former Astro and current Twins player Marwin Gonzalez genuinely apologized. The Astros players should have followed suit, but superstars Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman only dug their graves deeper. Bregman delivered Marshawn Lynch style “no comment” answers to the press. Correa illogically spat out a new cover-up story over Altuve’s jersey remaining on after his ALCS winning homerun, and Altuve falsely maintained that the Astros won their title legitimately.
The responses were all over the place when all the public wanted to hear were real apologies. This just cannot happen to an organization that is trying to weather worldwide outrage in a mass-media storm.
Boston’s public relations team needs to be ready for whatever scenario they are met with at the moment Manfred’s report is disclosed. The fanbase is still far from done expressing their anger over the Mookie Betts trade on social media, and the last thing this team needs is national outrage coming their way. Consistency is key, and I don’t doubt that John Henry, Sam Kennedy and Chaim Bloom will meet the media head on when the time comes. The tested duo of Henry and Kennedy added Bloom as their Chief Baseball Officer in October, and the three have handled the Boston media well thus far.
This will be the organization’s biggest test in a long time if there is damning information in the Commissioner’s report. They would be smart to learn from the Astros’ mistakes.
I'll preface my comment with this; I am no way, shape or form an avid follower of baseball, nor even a fairweather fan. Any baseball game I do watch is either a Yankee or Mets game, as I'm New York born and raised. However, the Astros and now Red Sox issues were scandals brought up even on my uninvolved radar, and I believe that says enough. I think sports especially is a sector that struggles significantly with crisis communications, and a large contribution has to do with the players. Though every player belongs to a team, each one acts independently and possesses their own thoughts, opinions and actions at large. Understandably, this is where things go haywire. I wholeheartedly agree…
The Astros' scandal has certainly joined the ranks of some of the worst in sports history. I've found myself recently thinking about action the MLB should take towards the players, especially when you consider the repercussions that were handed to the players involved in the infamous "Black Sox Scandal" in the early 1900s. It will certainly be interesting to see what Manfred chooses to do as national pressure rises. This post is especially effective as it hits home on where this whole debacle has grown even worse, and that's through PR. The more we learn about crisis communications, the more it appears that there should be a simple universal solution for PR teams, yet we keep seeing issues in this…