When Larry Lucchino and his master spinmeister, Dr. Charles Steinberg, were in town, they had a goal -- putting the Red Sox on the front page of the sports section 365 days a year.
In 2004, they effectively succeeded, with Steinberg gleefully noting that Jason Varitek's Christmas Eve contract extension had guaranteed coverage on the slowest news day of the year, even.
Theo Epstein's front office viewed this constant need for buzz as insatiable, unsustainable and ultimately destructive. It fueled the narrative of Seth Mnookin's 2006 bestseller, "Feeding the Monster."
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Fifteen years ago, it seemed hard to imagine the Red Sox would ever have to work to be in the news.
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They made headlines effortlessly, whether it was extending the Curse or ending the Curse; pursuing Alex Rodriguez or losing Alex Rodriguez; placating Manny Ramirez or trading Manny Ramirez; being in on every major free agent or being spurned by them, often in direct conflict with the Evil Empire in New York.
That colorful description of the rival Yankees belonged to Lucchino, who uttered it in 2003 after Boston's failed pursuit of Jose Contreras ended with the Cuban right-hander in pinstripes. The Red Sox countered months later by acquiring right-hander Curt Schilling over Thanksgiving dinner.
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They may as well have employed Susan Lucci, because it felt like their soap opera would run forever. Even as the Patriots methodically compiled Super Bowls, the Red Sox remained the team most directly hardwired into the limbic system of Boston's rabid fans.
Needless to say, a lot has changed over the last 15 years.
Once the Red Sox ended their championship drought, the passion of the chase inevitably receded, replaced by a more sanguine acceptance that they were just as likely to find ways to win as lose. Still, the soap opera endured, from Theo in a gorilla suit, to the 2007 championship, to the near-miss in 2008, to the implosion of 2011, and finally the Boston Strong title of 2013 that made all of Boston's drunk-on-power winning feel new again.
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In the seven years since, however, the Red Sox have inexorably lost their sizzle. The 2018 club simultaneously delivered one of the most dominating seasons in baseball history and some of the worst World Series ratings ever. Fans were willing to write off 2019 after the opening West Coast road trip. Most of us barely remember that 2020 even happened, except that it started with the trade of MVP Mookie Betts in a salary dump and ended with everyone locked in their houses.
Now we reach the winter of 2021. The Red Sox haven't been this irrelevant in nearly 30 years, since Scott Cooper was securing the franchise's lone All-Star berths in 1993 and 1994. They seem incapable of producing any emotion other than anger in the case of Betts, or indifference in the case of everything else.
This is a problem.
Three months into free agency, all the team has to show for its roughly $30 million in de facto cap space is Hunter Renfroe, Matt Andriese, and a reunion with left-hander Martin Perez.
They watched Charlie Morton sign with the Braves after a great postseason. They watched old friend Jon Lester join the Nationals for nothing. They watched Winchester resident Corey Kluber sign with the Yankees. They passed on Kyle Schwarber and Liam Hendriks and Blake Treinen. They're about to watch All-Star closer Kirby Yates sign with the Blue Jays. The Padres are wheeling and dealing and building one of baseball's best rotations. The White Sox are wheeling and dealing and building one of the American League's best teams.
And the Red Sox continue to do nothing, waiting out the market as more and more names leave it and the start of spring training ostensibly looms. Even accepting that there's no point -- at this stage of their rebuild -- in pursuing the highest-end free agents, they're still giving us nothing.
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No trade of Andrew Benintendi. No juicy rumors to keep the monster fed. Just a perpetual hunt for bargains while the fan base drifts off like Rip Van Winkle.
Lucchino and Steinberg understood that they were selling more than a product on the field. They were selling passion, melodrama, immersion, emotion. The current Red Sox check none of those boxes. They're a boring team on the field, and they're an ether-soaked rag to the face off of it.
What's truly mystifying is this -- they seem perfectly OK with it.
