Red Sox Set Date To Visit White House, Trump

The Red Sox are scheduled to visit the White House on Feb. 15 to celebrate their World Series victory, team president Sam Kennedy said Tuesday.

The partial government shutdown slowed talks between the team and the White House, but the team has told players and staff to expect Feb. 15. Kennedy said the team will "adjust" if the shutdown lingers and a visit would be deemed "inappropriate."

The Red Sox will leave their Spring Training home in Fort Myers, Fla., that morning and come back later in the day.

No one will be required to take the trip, which has taken on a different meaning since President Trump took office.

The Red Sox have been generally quiet about President Trump, as his Twitter tirades often don't intersect with baseball. But there have been some dots to connect.

Red Sox owner John Henry owns The Boston Globe, which has had a back-and-forth with Trump. Last year, the paper organized an editorial response against Trump's "dirty war on the media." In 2016, the paper published a false front predicting a frightening Trump presidency before he was elected.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora is expected to visit after visiting when he won the World Series with Houston the previous season. Cora spoke up after Trump tweeted in September that Democrats inflated the death toll in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, which killed thousands. Cora, the team's first Puerto Rican manager, said he respected Trump, "but I don't agree with a lot of stuff that he says about us."

>>>Watch The Final World Series Out

Reliever Heath Hembree said after winning the championship he was looking forward to visiting on a video that made its way around the internet, but celebration night quips aren't exactly official statements.

J.D. Martinez, the team's most prodigious slugger, was caught up in a somewhat political controversy when old Instagram photos were unearthed. One 2012 post was a meme featuring the text, "Obama will grab the early lead Tuesday, until the Republicans get off from work." Martinez added, "Love it!"

He avoided the questions that followed, saying he's "not a politician."

"That's why I don't talk about politics," he told reporters. "I don't want this distraction."

(Photo by Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images)