Buster Olney Claims Nobody Wants To Be The Red Sox GM
Growing up as a kid, I used to watch ESPN a lot. Unlike a lot of my friends, I’ve always been a baseball guy. There was one common perception while watching ESPN’s baseball content. Peter Gammons was a Red Sox homer and Buster Olney was a Yankees homer. Which I’m fine with. Take it in stride and understand where the view point is coming from.
Over the years, ESPN has become a dumpster fire of takes that make no logical sense. It’s why a company like
Let’s get back to Olney for a second. Buster is supposed to be the ESPN news breaker. I guess I should say was. ESPN is supposed to have the top news breakers in each sport. ESPN has Adam Schefter for the NFL. ESPN has Adrian Wojnarowski for the NBA. In baseball, Ken Rosenthal dominates the news cycle. He works for FOX and The Athletic. In fact, I don’t think Olney even ranks inside the top 5 baseball reporters that break stories. Joel Sherman, Jon Heyman, Robert Murray, Mark Feinsand, and Jon Morosi would be the other names that come to mind that break stories. In fact, Olney is so far down the list that ESPN had to go hire Jeff Passan just to get some kind of footing in the news cycle. The only difference between Marc Stein and Buster Olney is that ESPN decided to fire Stein. To be honest, that’s probably disrespectful to Stein. He breaks more stories than Olney in his respective sport.
Since Olney doesn’t break any news stories, he has been cast aside. ESPN has to make some use of him so they stick him behind the ESPN+ paywall to make him feel somewhat relevant. Look, I don’t know why nobody respects Olney in the industry. Probably because he doesn’t have any alpha in him. I can promise you this. This video below wouldn’t happen to Ken Rosenthal and he’s 2 feet tall. People actually respect Ken Rosenthal. Nobody respects Buster Olney.
Again, this doesn’t happen to a legit reporter. Olney looks like a lost puppy. That’s because he has no real role at ESPN. He doesn’t break news. Baseball Tonight has become irrelevant. He’s been cast aside as a sideline reporter like he’s on a paid internship. Deer in the headlights. I don’t know why ESPN keeps Buster around. Probably because Mike Greenberg likes him? I can’t confirm or deny this but, Olney might have gotten his start at ESPN because he milked some cows for Greenberg in Vermont.
Olney does try to break news on occasion. Whenever he does, he gets called out for being a dope. Here’s a couple of examples off the top of my head.
Olney reported that the Phillies were about to sign Addison Reed. That, of course, turned out to be not true. The Phillies signed Tommy Hunter. Reed signed with the Twins. Reed signed with Minnesota Twins that offseason.
Then Olney tried to report about the offer the White Sox offer to Manny Machado. He joined in on the fun with Bob Nightengale who is wrong so often that a lot of people think Bob might have Alzheimer’s. That’s not a joke. Nightengale is like one bad tweet away from Old Man Peter Gammons territory tweeting about how Alex Bregman saved the pilgrims on Thanksgiving. That’s a real tweet by Gammons. Look it up.
If Bob is on your side, then you’re probably wrong. Machado’s agent found the reports so laughable that he had couldn’t hold his tongue. Machado would wind up signing a 10 year deal worth $300 million with the Padres making this report sound sort of meaningless.
I have known Bob Nightengale and Buster Olney for many years and have always had a good professional relationship with both. But their recent reporting, like many other rumors in the past several months, have been inaccurate and reckless when it comes to Manny Machado. I don’t know if their sources are blatantly violating the Collective Bargaining Agreement by intentionally misleading them to try and affect negotiations through the public or are just flat out lying to them for other reasons. But the truth is that their reports on the details of the White Sox level of interest in Manny are completely wrong.
I am well aware that the entire baseball universe; fans, players, teams, and media members alike; are starved for information about this free agent market for all players, including Manny. But I am not going to continue to watch the press be manipulated into tampering with, not just with my client, but all of these players’ livelihoods as they have been doing this entire offseason. The absence of new information to report is no excuse to fabricate “news” or regurgitate falsehoods without even attempting to confirm their validity and it is a disservice to baseball fans everywhere when the media does just that.
Moving forward, I will continue to respect the CBA’s prohibition on negotiations through the media, and hope that others would do the same.
Look, this happens all the time. Every reporter gets abused. That’s why they exist. Jon Heyman has been Scott Boras’ personal mouth piece for years. Boras uses him as leverage. Teams use reporters as leverage too. Either way, this was a personal shot at Buster and Bob. It’s because they’re small fish in a big pond trying to be big fish in a small pond. Olney would never break a story this big. Never. He just wanted to be part of the mix and was made a fool of.
Last thing before I move on. Deion Sanders likes everybody. He does not like Buster Olney. Look it up. IF Deion doesn’t like you, then I sure as hell don’t either.
Now that we got the background information out of the way, let’s get to the real topic at hand. Buster Olney recently wrote a column for ESPN that couldn’t be more egregious. Olney’s latest piece is titled ‘Why nobody might want to be Boston’s GM’. Look, I know this is bait. I know this is hot take material that gets clicks. However, this one is so dumb that this is even surprising for ESPN.
Let’s start with the obvious. Olney is a Yankees homer. He covered the Yankees and Giants for the New York Times. Buster published a book called The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. Olney lives in New York. He loves the Yankees and that’s fine. Probably because he’s not a man enough to grow facial hair. Anyway, I digress.
Olney can be anti
Olney was milking cows in Vermont. If the Red Sox were to offer him the gm job (obviously would never happen) he would pull an Andy King. NO question about it. Shit, I would too. My dream in life is to be a general manager for a sports team. I would mop the competition too if I ever got my shot. If you’re not willing to get down and dirty to accomplish your dreams, shame on you. Push comes to shove, Olney would do ANYTHING to get this job. Millions of dollars to run a baseball team? Nobody is saying no to that. NOBODY. It’s such an egregious take that you can’t even take the article seriously. Then again, nobody was taking Olney seriously anyway.
Let’s get into the actual dynamics of the job. The Red Sox just spent more money than any other team in baseball for the 2nd year in a row. Last year they paid the highest luxury tax penalty possible. They have become the Yankees. Baseball is an unfair game. The Red Sox spent roughly $166 million more than the Rays did. Imagine what somebody could do who’s actually smart with that kind of advantage? This isn’t the gm of the Pirates. This is the GM of the Boston Red Sox with all the financial resources you could ask for. Anybody would want that opportunity. John Henry is a fantastic owner who is always willing to spend. If you needed any further proof, check out how Liverpool FC is doing since he bought the team.
Yes, the Red Sox want to trim the payroll a bit. It’s still a roster that features Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts, Rafael Devers, and JD Martinez. Boston won the World Series in 2018. They missed the playoffs in 2019 due to incompetence and ignorance. This is not a rebuilding job. The Red Sox will finish the season with the 4th best offense in baseball. It was first at the All-Star break before Dave Dombrowski waved the white flag. Yes, he deserved to get whacked. If you don’t agree, you weren’t paying attention. Dombrowski got fired because of ignorance and incompetence. Not because the team wasn’t loaded.
This is one of the best teams in baseball. They wouldn’t have won the World Series in 2018 if that wasn’t true. The Sox suffered a bit from the World Series hangover. The rotation wasn’t great because they pitched too many innings in 2018. That has nothing to do with whoever gets the job next. If anything, it’s a great time to get the job. You get a loaded roster with lower expectations after missing the playoffs. The Red Sox have rich people problems. Not poor people problems. Boston’s biggest problem going into the offseason is trying to get Mookie Betts signed to a long term extension. 29 other teams in baseball would die to have Betts as their right fielder because he’s the best one. Again, rich people problems. Not poor people problems.
Fixing the Red Sox is an easy problem. They lead Major League Baseball in blown saves. You can’t win when you give away more games than anybody else. It’s an easy fix. Find a closer and this team is right back in the World Series mix. It’s a problem that Dave Dombrowski was too ignorant to fix. It’s also the easiest thing to acquire on the market. The Red Sox need 3 bullpen arms and a starter to replace Rick Porcello’s spot in the rotation. That’s it. It’s the easiest fix in baseball.
I’m fine with Buster Olney being anti-Red Sox. I’m good with that. However, when you write an article saying that nobody wants to be the GM, you sound like a total buffoon. If Buster Olney had any once of respect in baseball, he lost it today. There are at least a million people out there that would cut their leg off to be the Red Sox GM. Maybe all 3 legs. Beat it, Buster. You’re a clown. Nobody respects you. OH, and over the last 15 years, the Red Sox have 4 championships. The Yankees have 1. Which job would you rather have? Give me the one that wins more than anyone else.
