The Boston Red Sox made some big news Tuesday night, but not all of it came on the field. The team announced near the tail end of their win over the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park that they have hired Dave Dombrowski as president of baseball operations, while Ben Cherington will step down as general manager.
Dombrowski was recently released from his position as general manager of the Detroit Tigers, making him the most highly sought over executive available. He has a history with Red Sox owner John Henry, having previously working for him in the Marlins organization.
"“I have known Dave for a very long time,” Henry said in a press release issued by the team. “Tom [Werner] and I have no doubts that Dave is the right person to strengthen our baseball operations group going forward. He is one of the most highly regarded executives in all of baseball, and had options to go with other clubs. We feel very fortunate that he wanted to come to Boston, and wanted to further his career now with the Red Sox as one of the greatest architects of winning baseball clubs.”"
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Dombrowki built the 1997 Marlins team that won a World Series and had his fingerprints on their 2003 title winning team as well. He took over the general manager position in Detroit in 2002 and put together teams that made the postseason five times and appeared in the World Series twice.
Rumors had swirled that the Red Sox could be interested in Dombrowski ever since he left Detroit last month, especially since it came on the heels of Larry Lucchino stepping down as president and CEO of the team. A shakeup in the front office was inevitable, but few expected changes to this extent to be made during the season.
The Red Sox will hold a press conference Wednesday afternoon to officially introduce Dombrowski, who expects to get down to work right away. He plans to hire a new general manager to work under him, but we know that it won’t be Cherington.
Cherington’s sudden departure comes as a surprise given his long history with the organization, which dates back to 1999. Ownership had given Cherington a vote of confidence despite several offseason moves that have backfired, while Dombrowski indicated that he had hoped Cherington would stay on in his position. Cherington declined the offer to work under Dombrowski, but will stay on temporarily to help assist with the transition.
Dombrowski in statement: "There was no option that stood out as clearly as the chance to come to Boston and win with the #RedSox"
— Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) August 19, 2015
Dombrowski and the revamped front office will have their work cut out for them this winter as they attempt to rebuild a roster that fell well short of expectations this season. By hiring Dombrowski to begin now, it allows him to begin that process immediately.
"“One of the advantages of joining the team now is that I get the opportunity to get a head start on the important job of roster construction for 2016,” Dombrowski said in a statement. “The Red Sox baseball operations group and Ben Cherington deserve extraordinary credit for the young, talented players that have broken through at the major league level, and I see outstanding potential in the talent still developing in the minor leagues.”"
Dombrowski has a history of making blockbuster trades and isn’t shy about trading away prized prospects. The Red Sox have one of the most loaded farm systems in baseball, so it will be interesting to see how he balances patience with developing young talent and packaging prospects to bring in established stars. His mentality in recent years in Detroit was to be in a win-now mode. Now he takes over a Red Sox team headed for their third losing season in the last four years, with a fan base eager to get back to contention.
While there have been a few disappointing years in recent history, let’s not forget that there was one year in between that ended with a championship parade. Cherington made his fair share of mistakes down the stretch, but he also deserves credit for being the architect of that 2013 title team.
Now it’s Dombrowski’s turn to make drastic changes to try to rebuild this roster on the fly and turn things around quickly.
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