Red Sox owner John Henry sent an email to the Boston beat writers on Wednesday morning denying a claim made by Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports that a number of star players, including Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez, asked for manager Bobby Valentine to be fired in a closed-door meeting last month with the organization’s higher-ups.
And now Gonzalez himself has issued a denial.
From Rob Bradford, beat writer for WEEI.com:
“The source is inaccurate,” said Gonzalez. “It says that I was animated and one of the most vocal guys in the meeting, and that’s false. I had a discussion with Bobby about that today. He knows exactly what happened. He knows the truth. I don’t know why this all of a sudden becomes something because this happened a month ago. So it’s all been cleared, and now somebody decides to write it. It’s already old. I think we’re all getting accustomed to Bobby. I’ve told this to John Henry, I’ve told this to Ben Cherington, and I’ve told it to Bobby, I think he’s a good manager. Nobody faults him for losing, and that’s unfair.”
Passan has stood by his source, calling the Red Sox “dysfunctional” and telling ESPN’s Mike and Mike that “there’s a lot more that’s going to come out about this as the team devolves toward September.”
Boston entered play Wednesday evening with a 57-60 record, ranking fourth in the American League East.