Tier, by definition, is more than one team. Trying to make the Sox look better, by pointing strays at teams in much smaller markets just makes the point of how bad the Sox have been. Even their biggest contract of the winter (a massive 40 billion, no wait, million) almost didn't happen until the front office went into Jerry’s office and begged him into signing a deal somewhere around 15 to 20% of initial expectations.
This is one of last remaining teams in MLB to not have a single nine figure deal, again, bottom tier.
Feel optimism all you like, but don't gaslight the obvious.