Former Red Sox Closer Rips Division Rival’s Offseason

Jonathan Papelbon was best known during his MLB career for his time with the Boston Red Sox. He made a name for himself in Bean Town, connecting with the blue-collar city through his tough and loud persona and pitching style.

Serving as the team's closer from 2005 to 2011, Papelbon became a huge fan favorite and certainly was in the AL East long enough to develop some real disdain toward the other teams in the division, not just the New York Yankees.

In a recent podcast interview, Papelbon was asked about the Toronto Blue Jays offseason, and he did not hold back in his criticism of what they've done this winter.

Former Red Sox reliever Jonathan Papelbon went on a podcast recently and ripped apart the #BlueJays offseason, saying that "Chris Bassitt and his 4.00 ERA" is not enough and that "aside from Gausman, the Jays have no good pitchers".

Wow.
— Eric Treuden (@ETreuden) February 15, 2023

He went right for the jugular on Toronto's pitching staff, which is viewed by many as a strength, especially with Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah at the top of it.

While he did say Gausman was a good pitcher, there were no compliments on Manoah, and dismissed the signing of "Chris Bassitt and his 4.00 ERA" as not enough for Toronto to do anything.

Bassitt's ERA is actually better than 4.00. In 2022 he pitched to a 3.42 ERA, which was slightly lower than his 3.45 career ERA. While Papelbon was technically incorrect from a numbers standpoint on Bassitt, his general point came across pretty clearly. If Toronto wants to have a shot at leapfrogging the Yankees in the AL East in 2023, they need to do much more than just adding a pitcher like Basssitt.

Papelbon was never a player that held anything back on or off the field during his playing days, and it sounds like that's continuing in retirement.

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David Kaestle is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, David also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username davekaestle. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.