Red Sox blunder loses Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn

As Major League Baseball was establishing free agency, there were often changing rules and deadlines that made it tough for the average fan to keep up. On this day in 1980, the Boston Red Sox showed they were struggling to keep up as well.

As players won the right to free agency, the game went through a number of early changes in the model that allowed players to reach the open market. In 1980, the Boston Red Sox were bitten on this day by one of those deadlines.

The Red Sox were coming off of a strong run as an organization and looked primed to continue their success. While they’d reached the postseason just twice over 14 seasons, they had not posted a losing record over that time, with the last team to finish under .500 in Boston being the 1966 squad that lost 90 games.

In fact, the 1980 team had struggled to an 83-77 record, but the team had won 90 or more games the previous three seasons and four of the previous five. The team had a dynamic offense, led by two stalwarts left over from the magical 1976 World Series run that came up short against the Cincinnati Reds, Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn.

Fisk was older now at 32 years of age, but he was still productive both at the plate and behind it, as he hit .289/.353/.467 with 18 home runs and even stole 11 bases in the 1980 season. Lynn continued to patrol center field, offering the Red Sox a .301/.383/.480 line in 1980 with 32 doubles, 12 home runs, and 12 steals.

Fisk and Lynn both required contracts to be tendered to them or they would become free agents based on the rules in the 1980/1981 offseason. The Red Sox missed the December 20th deadline, making Fisk and Lynn both free agents.

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Fisk had 7 All-Star appearances and 162 home runs under his belt in Boston. He would go on to hit 214 more home runs with the Chicago White Sox, however, playing until he was 45 years old and making four more All-Star games. Meanwhile, the Red Sox would see Rich Gedman make a pair of All-Star teams in the mid-1980s, but it wasn’t until nearly 20 years later that they saw a catcher hit for the same power and get on base as well.

Lynn’s injuries had already begun to eat at him, but he bounced back after an injury-riddled, slump-riddled 1981 with his new team, the Angels, and he put together 7 consecutive 20+ home run seasons to close out his career. He would finish his career with 306 home runs, but he hit 182 of them with teams other than the Red Sox, in spite of having his best years in Boston.

The incredible defense of Dwight Evans was able to cover the loss of Lynn to some degree, but the team ended up making a trade that cost them a very good young hitter to acquire Tony Armas to patrol center field. Armas had two excellent seasons in 1983 and 1984 with the team before injuries derailed his career and he, interestingly enough, finished his playing days with the Angels.

Some may say that the Red Sox survived without their two lost players on that day, but many Red Sox fans feel that their favorite players (as Fisk and Lynn were both heavy fan favorites) were ripped from them on that day, and some even blame what happened in 1986 to lose the World Series as karma for letting their fan favorites get away so easily. However you cut it, it was definitely a blunder in the Red Sox front office, one that would no doubt receive tremendous amounts of coverage today.