Nobody has owned the 2016 baseball season quite like Theo Epstein
COMMENTARY
Dexter Fowler is hitting .331 with a .992 OPS, so it’s not like the Chicago Cubs are currently lamenting the fact that they couldn’t pry Jackie Bradley, Jr. from the Red Sox during the offseason.
Bradley — the reigning American League Player of the Week after hitting .469 with three home runs, 15 runs batted in, and compiling a 1.298 OPS — was one of Boston’s most coveted players last winter, most notably by the Cubs, whose president of baseball operations happened to draft the center fielder a half-decade ago.
Already in his fifth season in charge of the Cubs, Theo Epstein is also still responsible for eight other players on the Red Sox’ current 25-man roster.
Bradley was the final first-round draft pick for Epstein as Red Sox general manager in 2011, chosen 40th overall after Matt Barnes (19th), Blake Swihart (26th), and Henry Owens (36th). Each has spent time in the majors this season.
Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts was a fifth-round pick in that same draft. Third baseman Travis Shaw came four rounds later.
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts was signed as an amateur free agent under Epstein’s watch in 2009. In 2008, Boston’s GM drafted catcher Christian Vázquez in the ninth round. Later that year, the franchise picked up free-agent relief pitcher Junichi Tazawa.
Epstein drafted embattled starting pitcher Clay Buchholz in the first round of the 2005 draft; second baseman Dustin Pedroia was picked in the second round in 2004.
And in 2003, he took a $1.2 million flier on free agent David Ortiz.
Ortiz and Bradley provided much of the fuel for the Red Sox’ recently-completed 6-1 homestand, while Epstein’s Cubs went through their roughest stretch of the 2016 season thus far; a 3-3 record against the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates ultimately put the National League Central leaders within sight of their 10th loss of the year. They still lead the Pirates by 7 1/2 games in the division race, and are the early favorite (13:5, according to Vegas odds) to win their first World Series in 108 years.
Epstein is already the front-runner to be named Major League Baseball Executive of the Year, an award both his predecessor (Dan Duquette, with the Baltimore Orioles in 2014) and successor (Cherington, 2013) in Boston have managed to win during their careers while he has not. But considering that there’s every possibility that the two teams he helped build could eventually meet in the World Series (Sox are currently at 10:1 odds to win the title), Epstein might have this year’s honor under wraps.
Consider that the Red Sox and Cubs, both with reputations for hard-luck fallibility long established before his arrival, are a combined 51-23 through the first six weeks of the 2016 season.
Goats and Bambinos aside, the real reason a Cubs-Red Sox World Series would be historic is because of the common factor that both cities have in their respective ascendancies, not the similarity of convenient curses.
Cherington and Dave Dombrowski acquired Rick Porcello and David Price, respectively. It was Cherington who, while Epstein was on sabbatical, traded Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett, before signing him as a free agent nine years later. Dombrowski built a bullpen with power arms, landing Carson Smith and Craig Kimbrel in offseason trades.
But the core of the 2016 Red Sox is still Epstein’s doing.
Epstein is in line for the same sort of hindsight praise Duquette received in Boston after the 2004 Red Sox won the World Series with a roster of that former GM’s remnants, including Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Jason Varitek, Derek Lowe, and Pedro Martinez. Unlike Duquette’s high-priced legacy, though, Epstein’s fingerprints, aside from Buchholz, Pedroia, and Ortiz, were mostly left behind in pieces just now emerging onto the major league scene. Bradley, Bogaerts, and Shaw should all be headed to the All-Star Game in July, no doubt to face off against Jake Arrieta (7-0, 1.29 ERA), the Cubs ace whom Epstein swindled away from the Baltimore Orioles for next to nothing in 2013.
Old friend Jon Lester (4-2, 1.88 ERA) might be there too, along with Jason Hammel (5-0, 1.77) and Ben Zobrist (.932 OPS), three key free agents who have worked in Chicago. That’s a process that never exactly defined him in Boston, where money given to mercenaries such as Carl Crawford, Julio Lugo, and Edgar Renteria never really panned out.
Epstein built the Cubs by trading for Anthony Rizzo (11 home runs, 1.015 OPS), whom he had drafted in Boston, then traded to San Diego in a package for Adrian Gonzalez. He signed John Lackey (4-2, 3.54) for a second time. He drafted budding superstars Kris Bryant (.828 OPS) and Kyle Schwarber (done for the season with a torn ACL). He dealt Hammel and Jeff Samardzija for Addison Russell (.819 OPS) in 2014 (the year the Oakland A’s were “going for it”), then held on to the integral shortstop and re-signed Hammel to boot.
There’s a general thought that Epstein will have his road to the Baseball Hall of Fame paved immediately if he ends up being the man who leads both franchises to World Series title, after all the close calls, dubious decisions, and irrational roster constructions over the past century.
It doesn’t matter. He already owns the best of the 2016 season.
Theo Epstein has built what might be the two best teams in baseball.
It must be driving Larry Lucchino nuts.
The 2004 Red Sox – Where are they now?
[bdc-gallery id=”415102″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com