We only know so much, but seemingly, we can piece together a few things.
- Coming off the World Series in 2005, the Sox had the 4th highest payroll in 2006, behind the Yanks, Red Sox and Angels
- In 2022, the Sox came in with the 7th highest payroll, at 203,205,326..according to Spotrac.
The point is, Jerry will spend in the upper echelon when the team is in a good spot and there is buzz around the team.
Now, we also know what he won't do. He seemingly won't go over 5 years with a pitcher, and signing a 300+ million dollar player seems unlikely. We also don't know what he is comfortable with/willing to spend on internals like scouting and analytics, but I tend to believe he would mostly leave that to the President/GM of Baseball, assigning them an overall budget and determining where that money needs to go.
Those are absolutely hurdles that any GM would need to leap, but there are plenty of "successful" GM's that have those same limitations placed on them every year, often times much worse. The Twins, Indians, Rays, Brewers, etc all have way harsher payroll restrictions, yet have been wildly more successful than the Sox over the last decade+
My point is building a successful, consistent and good baseball team is possible under the "limitations" Jerry sets. Certainly harder than someone like the Dodgers, Mets, Red Sox, Yankees...but I believe it absolutely could be done. Rick is very bad at his job, and Jerry continues to let blind loyalty destroy his legacy. Where we sit today, I no doubt hold Jerry/Kenny/Rick all responsible, where the blame goes doesn't really matter at this point because we suffer no matter what. I'm just saying I believe from a pure baseball standpoint, Rick has hurt this team more than anyone else.