Like many of the great former Red Sox players of the first two decades of this century, Jonathan Papelbon is deeply concerned with the current culture.

“There’s no question about that, there’s been a lapse in that culture,” the six-time All-Star closer and franchise all-time saves leader told the Herald by phone on Friday.

But while the offseason has been a slow and disappointing one for Boston thus far, Papelbon believes they’ve already made a significant improvement, addition by subtraction:

He’s glad they traded Alex Verdugo.

When Verdugo gave his first media availability as a Yankee this week, he spoke about being “very, very excited” to work with his new manager, Aaron Boone. “I’ve seen the way (Boone) has his players’ backs. The one that really gets out to me is he’s like ‘these guys are savages and he’s yelling at the umpire,” the outfielder said. “That’s something I want to see out of my head coach, I want to see some fire and fight of the guys, and instead of airing people out have their backs.”

It was a thinly-veiled allusion to his fraught relationship with Alex Cora, and it infuriated Papelbon. On X (formerly Twitter), the NESN analyst called Verdugo a “bitch” twice.

“You aired yourself out by being late, lazy and unproductive,” Papelbon wrote. “If I played for Cora I’m drilling this bitch, just saying.”

“I think Alex and (Craig) Breslow are both all-in on how we’re going to create a winning culture,” he said in his conversation with the Herald. “Hence the reason why they had no problem getting rid of Verdugo.”

“Let’s get the culture of the Red Sox back. Let’s get the dirt dogs, like when we played. I mean, Trot Nixon has got a tattoo that says ‘Dirt Dog,” he revealed. “That’s how we were, that culture. And if you don’t get that back, it doesn’t matter how many superstars you got.”

“To me, they don’t need this kid,” Papelbon assessed. “He’s an average player. He’s not, you’re not dealing with a superstar. You’re not dealing with a Manny Ramirez-type caliber.

“For years, we dealt with Manny and ‘Manny being Manny.’ Maybe (Manny) was a cancer sometimes in our clubhouse, but we dealt with it because he was a superstar!” he said with a chuckle. “You’re not a superstar, you can’t pull this.”

Verdugo’s latest comments may have been the boiling point for Papelbon, but the longtime Red Sox closer says his issues with the outfielder’s behavior had been building for some time.

“Everything that he brought up in the interview just pissed me off because there’s zero accountability there,” Papelbon said.

Accountability was a recurring an issue for Verdugo during his four-year tenure with the Red Sox. He was never going to live up to the Mookie Betts’ standard, but he didn’t consistently live up to his own potential, either. The inconsistency was a source of increasing tension with his manager, who was already open to a trade before the ’23 deadline, sources told the Herald. Cora often attempted to motivate Verdugo by calling him out in the press. The outfielder claimed the management style motivated him, but also admitted made him angry. His stated preference for Boone’s supportive tendencies suggests Cora’s methods spurred more of the latter.

On more than one occasion, Cora felt the need to bench the starting outfielder. One weekend in August, Verdugo arrived hours late for pre-game activities. Cora abruptly pulled him from the lineup. Post-game, the manager described the incident as one of the worst days of his time in the organization. Standing in the clubhouse moments later, the outfielder denied being late.

Yet, if Cora was harder on him than he was on other players, it was a reaction to Verdugo’s own actions, Papelbon asserted. Based on his many years in professional baseball, he said a manager would’ve been far from alone in feeling frustrated with such behavior.

“Players get other players out of the clubhouse,” he explained. “I would show up to NESN before (Verdugo) would show up to the field some days. You’d hear him rev his little hot-rod car up, or whatever the hell he drove, and it’s like, dude, you’re way late. Players get pissed off at that. The players then go around, they start mumbling like, ‘You know what? F this guy, man. (Cora), we don’t need this guy, bench him today.”

That Verdugo apparently managed to get on the bad side of one of the most respected players in Los Angeles Dodgers history bolsters Papelbon’s assertions. “The Red Sox got rid of a headache,” one American League scout told NJ Advance Media in the days after the Yankees trade. “When he was with the Dodgers, he wasn’t on their playoff roster but they kept him around in case somebody got hurt. Clayton Kershaw went up to management one day and told them to get him the hell of out this clubhouse. Within a few hours, he was packed and on his way.”

As he prepares to enter the Red Sox Hall of Fame alongside Trot Nixon and Dustin Pedroia next spring, Papelbon is thinking about what it means to play for one of the most decorated franchises in sports history.

“When you put the Red Sox uniform on, you put it on and you play a certain way,” he explained. “I believe by getting rid of Verdugo and some of these small little things they’re doing right now, they’re trying to create the right culture. And I believe that culture outweighs – this is a saying of mine – culture eats analytics for breakfast.”