David Price has been one of the most hated men in Boston since he signed a $217M contract with the hometown Red Sox prior to the 2016 season.
From the getgo, the fit just wasn’t right. Price, is frankly a sensitive guy, and he doesn’t appear to handle criticism well at all. If you need proof, just take a gander at David Price’s Twitter history. In 2013, after getting raked by David Ortiz and the Boston Red Sox in Game 2 of the ALDS, Price went on a confusing and pretty funny Twitter tirade, fighting with fans and thoroughly embarrassing himself. One classic example was him going right after the TBS postgame crew after they tore his garbage start to shreds. Price tweeted "Dirk Hayhurst … COULDN'T hack it … Tom Verducci wasn't even a water boy in high school … but they can still bash a player … SAVE IT NERDS." Listen, anytime you’re on the receiving end of a NERDS in all caps you either have to fight the person who called you that or just call it a quits because they’re pathetic.
However hilarious the tweet was, I think it’s important that you consider the context of what that means for an athlete heading to Boston on a contract worth $30M per year. The Boston sports media isn’t nice, and neither are the fans. If Tampa Bay Rays fans and reporters were able to get under David Price's skin, the guy is going to be a total mess under the immense scrutiny in Beantown. And a total mess he’s been the last two years and some change; the disconnect between him and the city of Boston couldn’t have been any more apparent than when he called out Dennis Eckersley in front of the entire Red Sox team. Since then, he has been hated by Red Sox fans around the country and couldn’t be more deserving.
On Wednesday, David Price did more to damage his image with the Boston media when manager Alex Cora announced that he would be missing his next star with carpal tunnel syndrome. Naturally, everyone lost their minds. Are video games more important to David Price than playing baseball? Yeah, well so what if they are, Tony Mazz?
I'm here to tell you that David Price's weird injury might have just saved his reputation in the city of Boston. Fortnite is in right now. Hot take? Not really. It’s destroying college students’ GPAs and probably the quality of Drake's next album. It’s the most played game in the history of the planet. Does Tucker Boynton approve? No. Does that matter? Obviously not. Anybody and everybody is playing Fortnite. If David Price is up at 4am ripping duo wins with Mookie Betts, who am I to tell him that baseball is more important? Who is anyone to tell him baseball is more important? David Price just went from a whiny millionaire to someone who is just like us, raging everytime he gets sniped in the head.
On a more serious note, this injury news is a good thing for the Red Sox. We now know that David Price's recent struggles, after a start that looked extremely promising for the former Cy Young-winner, can be attributed to his recently diagnosed injury. As a result, he’ll be shut down, so speculation and white noise regarding the issue should subside in some time. The bottom line is that the Red Sox need David Price to pitch at a near All-Star level if they want to win the division this season, and Price isn’t going to give them that with tingly fingers.
At the end of the day, one start in the grand scheme of a 162-game season doesn’t really mean much for David Price, but what could mean the world is the support of the next generation of Boston baseball fans.
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