Shane Victorino heads back to the disabled list

By Drew SilvaMay 24, 2015, 12:32 PM EDT
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Red Sox right fielder Shane Victorino missed 15 days earlier this season with a right hamstring strain and then had to be scratched from two games this past week due to tightness in his left calf. That calf injury is now being called a strain, and it is sending him back yet again to the 15-day disabled list.

Brian MacPherson, the Red Sox beat writer at the Providence Journal, shares the roster move …

Victorino has appeared in just 50 of a possible 205 games over the last two seasons due to a variety of leg and back problems. This latest absence will give Rusney Castillo, who was recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket on May 22, a good opportunity to show whether he’s ready to be an everyday big leaguer.

If Castillo plays to his potential, Victorino might not have a starting job when his health returns.

Red Sox employees “livid” over team pay cut plan

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By Craig CalcaterraMay 30, 2020, 7:09 AM EDT
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Even Drellich of The Athletic reports that the Boston Red Sox are cutting the pay of team employees. Those cuts, which began to be communicated last night, apply to all employees making $50,000 or more. They are tiered cuts, with people making $50-99,000 seeing salary cut by 20%, those making $100k-$499,000 seeing $25% cuts and those making $500,000 or more getting 30% cuts.

Drellich reported that a Red Sox employee told him that “people are livid” over the fact that those making $100K are being treated the same way as those making $500K. And, yes, that does seem to be a pretty wide spread for similar pay cuts. One would think that a team with as many analytically-oriented people on staff could perhaps break things down a bit more granularly.

Notable in all of this that the same folks who own the Red Sox — Fenway Sports Group — own Liverpool FC of the English Premier League, and that just last month Liverpool’s pay cut/employee furlough policies proved so unpopular that they led to a backlash and a subsequent reversal by the club. That came after intense criticism from Liverpool fan groups and local politicians. Sox owner John Henry must be confident that no such backlash will happen in Boston.

As we noted yesterday, The Kansas City Royals, who are not as financially successful as the Boston Red Sox, have not furloughed employees or cut pay as a result of baseball’s shutdown in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps someone in Boston could call the Royals and ask them how they managed that.