Ben Cherington deserves the nod that Dave Dombrowski still can’t find with the Red Sox
COMMENTARY
It was a good night for Andrew Benintendi.
It was a better night for Ben Cherington.
The former Red Sox general manager has rightfully taken his lumps in his year removed from office, but Tuesday night delivered a pair of reasons to give Cherington the credit he’s still due for his hand in this year’s team.
There was his final, first-round draft pick, Andrew Benintendi, all of a week-old at the major league level delivering three hits against the New York Yankees in his Fenway Park debut, including a controversial double that should have been a home run if not for a group of instant replay officials in Manhattan who might have had some provincial reason to reverse the call.
There was Rick Porcello, the starting pitcher for whom Cherington was mocked giving a four-year, $82.5 million contract before ever throwing a pitch in a Red Sox uniform, winning his 15th game of the 2016 season — as many as he lost in 2015 — and making a firm case that he should be the starter the team turns to should the postseason come down to a one-game wild card playoff. Particularly if it happens at Fenway Park, where Porcello is now a pristine 11-0 this year. The Red Sox are 17-6 in games started by the righty, 44-44 otherwise.
Also of note, there are four active pitchers to reach 100 wins before their 28th birthday: Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez, CC Sabathia, and Porcello, who marked the feat Tuesday night. Of course.
Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo may be expensive afterthoughts, Hanley Ramirez a middle-of-the-lineup enigma, and Joe Kelly and Allen Craig Triple-A losses, but on a night like Tuesday, Cherington has reason to save a smug smile in the face of his successors.
Eight days short of the one-year swap of power from Cherington to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in the Red Sox front office, and the newer guy’s fingerprints on this team remain an unsatisfactory jumble. Craig Kimbrel, the closer Dombrowski picked up last offseason in a trade with the San Diego Padres, nearly gave away what was a 5-3 win for Boston Tuesday night with an uncanny inability to find the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. Ace starter David Price hasn’t won a game in a month, and the team is 3-7 in his last 10 starts. Mid-season pickup Aaron Hill makes Christian Vazquez look like Johnny Bench at the plate, Carson Smith was a lost cause since his arrival from Seattle, and the decision to move former catcher Blake Swihart to left field has resulted in a season-ending ankle injury.
All-Star Drew Pomeranz gets his fifth start with the Red Sox Wednesday night since coming over from the Padres in a trade last month, costing Boston top pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza. He’s looking for his first win, carrying a 6.20 ERA during his time in Boston to the mound.
Why does the name Larry Andersen come to mind the more we watch the inconsistent lefty pitch?
Indeed, these resurgent Red Sox are 1 1/2 games out of first place in the American League East, a joyous turn of events in the wake of back-to-back last-place finishes. At 61-50, these Sox have the same record after 11 games that their 2004 predecessors managed en route to the first World Series victory for this town since 1918. But this is also still a squad anchored by guys from the bosoms of Cherington and Theo Epstein.
Epstein, now in Chicago hoping to end another long-overdue title drought with the Cubs, is still responsible for signing David Ortiz and Junichi Tazawa, drafting Dustin Pedroia, Travis Shaw, Matt Barnes, Mookie Betts, and Jackie Bradley Jr., and picking up Xander Bogaerts as an amateur free agent. Cherington has Porcello and Benintendi to crow about, in addition to trades that landed Steven Wright, All-Star Brock Holt, and Eduardo Rodriguez.
Dombrowski threw $217 million at the best free agent pitcher available, and hasn’t stuck gold on any other move otherwise. With 18 saves, Kimbrel has been the closest thing. But he’s also been an unreliable wreck in anything other than a save situation, something he added to his dark resume on Tuesday night.
Brad Ziegler has been a nice addition to the bullpen over his first 10 games with the Red Sox, and it’s too soon to tell yet on Fernando Abad, though Seattle’s Robinson Cano probably already has his assessment of the situation after last week’s game-winning home run off the lefty specialist. Whoops.
But while the lights still shine for the former guys in charge, Dombrowski is still looking for his first acquisition that he can rightfully claim having a true, everyday impact on a club fighting for October.
He’s made decisions that should be applauded; helping decide that third baseman Sandoval would sit when Shaw came out of spring training with a scorching bat, moving Ramirez to first base, and making the call that Benintendi was ready after two months at Double-A Portland.
But the guys he’s brought in since taking over a year ago…there’s not much to say.
It was a great night for Ben Cherington.
Come Wednesday, Dombrowski can only longingly look with wanting eyes in Pomeranz’s direction.
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