Ben Cherington had to go
COMMENTARY
This had to happen.
Maybe not in the way that the Boston Red Sox ultimately ousted general manager Ben Cherington, essentially calling for his resignation to go in line with the hiring of Dave Dombrowski in an oddly-timed announcement Tuesday night.
Still, the incumbent needed to go.
Cherington’s legacy is a strange one. He helped lead the Red Sox to the 2013 World Series title, something only two Boston general managers are able to boast about doing over the past 97 years. He was also at the helm of what will soon be a trio of last-place finishes, making him the only GM to have to deal with that stain on his resume.
Then again, how much of this is truly Cherington’s fault, and how quickly will Dombrowski, the former Detroit Tigers president, learn that this is perhaps a franchise where the baseball operations needs to balance both what is good on the field and what’s good for the narrative?
Cherington infamously wanted no part of the disaster that was Bobby Valentine in his inaugural season as the man in charge. Red Sox ownership patted themselves on the back following the epic trade of Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Josh Beckett to the Los Angeles Dodgers, portraying Cherington as having little more than a minor role in the franchise-defining swap. And say what you will about Pablo Sandoval’s disastrous debut season with his new team, but the decision to sign the portly third baseman to a $95 million contract has been just as big of a burden on the TV people and marketers who foolishly thought Boston fans could be suckered with panda hats.
On the whole though, Cherington was a terrible general manager. Sandoval and Cherington binky Hanley Ramirez will go down as his swan song free agent red lights. He didn’t get nearly enough for Jon Lester, whom he waited until the last, possible moment to trade in desperation. He made the call on dealing John Lackey for Allen Craig and Joe Kelly, the landmark deal that will always speak of his group’s pathetic talent evaluation.
Yet, for the first time since Midre Cummings was on the roster, Cherington will not be a part of baseball in Boston, a development that seems as odd as it is sudden. As a scout starting in 1999, Cherington pre-dates pretty much everybody else on the Red Sox masthead, and should be credited with a large role in the development and maintenance of a farm system that some consider to be the best in baseball. Oh, his recent drafting has been a debacle, but this was the same guy who helped select players like Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, David Murphy, and Jacoby Ellsbury.
Unfortunately, there just as many flameouts. Not that that’s an outlier when trying to draft young talent, but eventually, Cherington’s failure to produce consistency in the early rounds of the draft caught up to his overall worth to the organization.
“Although we have achieved tremendous success over the last fourteen seasons, we had reached a clear internal consensus that we needed to enhance our baseball operation,’’ Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said in a team statement released Tuesday night. “In nearly four decades in the game, Dave is a proven winner and he can restore winning ways to Yawkey Way and help to fulfill the Red Sox goal, every year, to be playing meaningful games into October.’’
That’s something Cherington was only able to accomplish once. It’s something that his predecessor, Theo Epstein, wasn’t able to do in his final three seasons in Boston. This despite what amounts to unlimited funds from owner John Henry, and a scoring and development system often lauded as among the class of the major leagues.
Why did the Red Sox sign Crawford when they already had Ellsbury? Why did the Red Sox chase after Sandoval, when Josh Donaldson (one year, $4.3 million, and 33 home runs later) was available, and retroactively, a target that Cherington admitted he would have liked to pursue prior to Pandemonium.
The fact that Werner is taking a more obvious role in the structure of the Red Sox hierarchy is frightening, so perhaps it’s somewhat comforting that the team has brought in a guy with the pedigree of Dombrowski, who, despite some questionable blunders of his own over the years (Prince Fielder, nine years and $214 million, anyone?), doesn’t seem like the kind of guy Werner and Henry can lay on the floor of the offices at Yawkey Way in order to walk over. Henry and Dombrowski have a working relationship that dates back to their time with the Florida/Miami Marlins, and the owner’s assurances of autonomy had to have played a role in Dombrowski’s decision to eschew other offers in order to come to Boston.
At age 59, Dombrowski is the oldest general manager the Red Sox have had since the late, great Lou Gorman, who was 66 years old when he surrendered the position to Dan Duquette in 1994. That’s not just a simple change in philosophy for the Red Sox, it’s a monumental shift in the way the team is planning to approach every level that has gone so horribly wrong, not only affecting the gate receipts and the ratings, but the very brand itself.
So, why now? Where was this impetus during last offseason, when the Red Sox built a pitching staff that was a laughingstock, and has turned out to be something more concerning than that in its implementation? Where was the culpability when Henry stood at Fenway Park and backed both manager John Farrell and Cherington, whom he stressed would be the GM “for a long time.’’
Or, as it turned out, for 80 more days.
Dombrowski may not be the right guy to whom to dedicate your blind loyalty. It didn’t end well with the Tigers, who parted ways with him after Dombrowski sold off David Price and Yoenis Cespedes to the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets, respectively. Detroit’s farm system is considered among the worst in baseball, according to Baseball America. Then again, he managed to fleece Cherington on the overall value of Rick Porcello. Maybe he just wants the chance to unload him once again.
Cherington may have come from the same mold as Epstein, but it always seemed he had the uncanny ability — or, perhaps, downfall — to bite his lip when encouraged or forced to proceed down an avenue that wasn’t best for the baseball operations’ reputation. Epstein had had enough of the suffocation by the time he landed with the Chicago Cubs. Cherington has always seemed to deal with it with a much more level tone. Now, it’s Dombrowski’s turn to balance baseball decisions with “feeding the monster.’’
Cherington became the fall guy, but somebody had to. Expecting to watch Dombrowski snap his fingers and make everything good though is foolhardy.
All of a sudden, these are your father’s Red Sox. We know how that goes.
Meet the new Red Sox team president
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