HOT SEAT
HOT SEAT
The Boston Red Sox 2012 season – what was supposed to be a bounce-back year after the fried chicken and beer calamity that was the 2011 campaign – ended with a thud. The Bobby Valentine experiment failed (in Spring Training), and so the Red Sox needed their third manager in three years. In an effort to move up, the team looked up; they went to Canada and hired John Farrell as their new skipper. In his first year at the helm, the Red Sox went 97-65 and won the World Series. Not a bad start.
However, in 2014, the Red Sox resumed their position in the cellar, going 71-91, a grave disappointment. And 2015 didn’t start much better. By mid-August, the Sox were comfortably ensconced in last place, with a 50-64 record. And then, on August 14th, Farrell announced that he was suffering from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that he would immediately undergo treatment. The team named Torey Lovullo as the interim manager for the remainder of the season.
As these things tend to go, the team responded. Maybe it was the inspiration of their fallen leader; maybe it was just a different voice in their ears; or maybe it was simply aggression to the mean. But whatever it was, over their last 48 games, the team went 28-20 (a nearly 95-win pace).
However, not wanting their manager to get “Wally Pipped” by a cancer diagnosis, shortly after the season ended, the team announced that Farrell would return for the 2016 season. And then the following happened:
• The BoSox acquired closer Craig Kimbrel from the Padres.
• And then they made the move of the off-season, signing David Price for 7/$217M.
• And then they finished off their Hot Stove by acquiring Carson Smith and Roenis Elias from the Mariners.
• After that, Red Sox Nation started polishing the duck boats in anticipation of another parade through the Back Bay.
But then Spring Training started. Pablo Sandoval came in overweight (to put it kindly). Rick Porcello and Clay Buchholz and Henry Owens and Brian Johnson proceeded to look awful on the hill. And Carson Smith left a game with the dreaded forearm tightness. Now suddenly, the outlook ain’t so brilliant, and Farrell finds himself squarely on the hot seat.
If the Red Sox break camp and start slowly – and there are many indications that they will – the front office will need to use their heads, not their hearts.
It is one thing to not fire a manager who is out on medical leave, fighting for his life. But, by all accounts, Farrell is healthy, and the Red Sox are no longer required to take pity on the man if the team isn’t playing well.
Torey Lovullo remains right there on the bench; the man with the .583 winning percentage (admittedly, a small sample size) is but a seat cushion away. World Series victory or not, Farrell comes into the season with a career record of 372-390; a Red Sox record of 218-220, with two last place finishes in the last three years (and 4 of 5 managerial seasons finishing in fourth place or worse). Neither Farrell nor the Red Sox can allow that to become five out of six.
So, keep a watchful eye on Boston in April and May. Dave Dombrowski and John Henry should have no issue eating the remainder of Farrell’s salary for 2016 and all of 2017 for a chance to win now. And they should have even less compunction about doing so knowing that the right guy is already there, a few feet away, under contract, undervalued, and ready to take the reins.
PLAY BALL!!
