Theo Epstein still owns the Red Sox, who can’t quite figure out who they are
COMMENTARY
Perhaps it’s inherently fitting that on the same day Theo Epstein was dubbed with All-Star grandeur, his former team found itself thrust into mayhem.
It was, after all, only hours after Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski announced on Tuesday the peculiar move of assigning Brian Bannister to a pitching coach role that isn’t technically a pitching coach role, that Boston’s former general manager — who assumes the same title as Dombrowski with the Chicago Cubs — found himself able to boast nine players that he had either drafted or signed named to both the American and National League All-Star teams.
The Red Sox had six All-Stars named to the 2016 American League team, only one of whom Dombrowski was directly responsible for: Boston closer Craig Kimbrel, acquired from the San Diego Padres last winter.
Kimbrel came into Tuesday night with 17 saves and a 2.53 ERA for the Red Sox, but anyone who has watched the guy this season, particularly when he’s inserted into a game without his wooby of a save situation, had to question the honor. Yet, it’s a spot that Red Sox manager (for now) John Farrell has insisted on putting his closer throughout the season, despite the fact that Kimbrel has proven himself to be an imploding mental mess without the save on the line.
Kimbrel has pitched 13 1/3 innings of non-save situations this season. He’s 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA over those 14 games.
He’s only received 5 1/3 more innings as a closer, putting up a 1.45 ERA over 19 games.
Tuesday though was a swath of incompetence, from the blundering managerial decision to use the closer to Kimbrel’s uselessness on the mound against the Texas Rangers, who scored four runs against him in the ninth inning to steal a 7-2 win at Fenway Park.
Boston entered the final frame down by a run, a situation Kimbrel should be able to handle, in theory, but one in which he remains about as resilient as a frozen, afternoon Bomb Pop at the beach. That is Kimbrel’s fault.
But it’s also Farrell’s responsibility to not allow it to happen as repetitively as it has this season.
Then again, it’s not only like it’s a problem solely with Kimbrel.
Thus comes the odd situation that had Dombrowski giving Bannister, the team’s director of pitching analysis and development, a new role on the major league staff, during which he will be among the uniformed personnel before games, and in street clothes following first pitch, due to baseball rules governing the number of on-field coaches in the dugout.
Pitching coach Carl Willis, who has overseen a staff that has amassed a 4.51 ERA, 10th-best in the American League this season, apparently doesn’t have to worry about his job just yet, despite the fact that $217 million man David Price has been a disappointment, Clay Buchholz has been a puddle, and Eduardo Rodriguez has been unable to find any of the effectiveness he had last season. Essentially, Bannister becomes the team’s Great Gazoo, leading the astray Fred and Barney of the dugout to help make the staff better prepared for the random array of decision-making.
Hey, things are stacked up against Willis, and it’s not like his one-time, “pitching guru,” fellow manager is ever going to add anything to the mix.
So, why not Bannister?
“Brian has done an outstanding job for us in many different areas,” Dombrowski said. “When he was hired, we really thought he would help us in various areas but we also thought we would let the position develop over time and use him where needed.”
Translation: “Bannister might make a good pitching coach.”
It’s a position that Bannister had never held though, so inching him into the flames can only make sense for the Sox, who hired the former Mets and Royals pitcher early last year as a member of their scouting department. Bannister’s affinity for advanced statistics and video analysis might even make him the next Dustin Pedroia, as far as fixing mechanical flaws is concerned.
“It’s not that we’re unhappy [with Willis], but we’re looking for any way to make ourselves better,” Dombrowski said.
What’s next? Bench coach Torey Lovullo named “assistant manager?”
If you perceived it was only public outcry that had Farrell and Willis on respective hot seats as the 45-38 Red Sox have tumbled into third place in the AL East, then Bannister is clearly the front office’s way of putting that theory to rest.
“He has worked closely with supplying information to John Farrell and Carl Willis throughout the season. We thought it would be that much more helpful to put him in uniform,” Dombrowski said. “The players in today’s game really want the type of information that he supplies — statistical, analytical, arm angles. They want to see these type of things.”
Things that, apparently, Willis nor Farrell have delivered.
In the wake of Independence Day though, Dombrowski needs to assess a team that has gone only 13-18 since the beginning of last month, with the trading deadline rapidly approaching in fewer than four weeks. It seemed through May that this was a Red Sox team that might only be a piece or two away from being a serious threat in October. But much of that personality was bred from a scorching offense that blanketed the inefficiencies of the pitching staff, a matter that has managed to balance itself out into what might., perhaps, be conceived as this roster’s normalcy.
But Farrell and Willis have been so inept that it’s impossible to judge where the talent has come up short versus which decisions and leadership have led to lesser results. I mean, Price hasn’t been great, but we’re looking at a complete disaster to this point of the season if the second baseman didn’t happen to plunk himself down in front of the video monitor one day.
Pedroia is also one of the remaining players on the All-Star “Final Vote,” and has the potential to reach the Midsummer Classic along with teammates — and starters — David Ortiz, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Xander Bogaerts, in addition to Steven Wright and Kimbrel. Four of those guys, of course, were direct descendants of Epstein, the team’s former general manager who drafted Betts and Bradley, signed Bogaerts as an amateur free agent, and plucked Ortiz from free agency after the Minnesota Twins decided they had no room for a future Hall of Fame designated hitter.
Pedroia would make it five guys that Epstein brought into baseball that made it to this year’s All-Star Game. For the Red Sox.
He also saw his entire Chicago infield named to the National League squad, a team that is littered with members of the 52-31 Cubs. Seven Cubs made it this year, including first baseman Anthony Rizzo (whom Epstein drafted in Boston in 2007) Ben Zobrist (free agent), Addison Russell (acquired from the Oakland A’s in 2014), Kris Bryant (drafted in 2013), Jake Arrieta (acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in 2013), Dexter Fowler (acquired via trade in 2015), and, of course, Jon Lester, whom he both drafted and signed in separate cities.
If Pedroia makes it, Epstein’s fingerprints will be on 14 of the 68 players elected to play in San Diego next week. He can already say he’s responsible for nine of the AL and NL starters, and that’s without Lester or Arrieta getting the nod to start for the senior circuit. Ben Cherington can claim Wright, whom he acquired in 2012. For the second-straight season, Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, Joe Kelly, Allen Craig, and Rusney Castillo didn’t make it.
Dombrowski has Kimbrel. What a mess of an honor that has become.
No worries. Brian Bannister to the rescue.
“Gazoo.”
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