Boston Red Sox managerial merry-go-round from last decade
The Boston Red Sox have had four managers in the past decade and three met the same fate as most managers do. A look back at the history and circumstances of all four.
Managers in baseball have an extremely short shelf life with the exception of Connie Mack. Mr. Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for the first 50 years of their existence, but Mack – who always managed from the bench in street clothes – happened to be the owner of the team. Mack had also previously managed as a player-manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates back in the dusty days of the late 1890s.
Boston has an illustrious history of disposing of managers rather routinely with the possible exception of Joe Cronin. Cronin was acquired from the Washington Senators in a purchase/trade agreement by Tom Yawkey. Clark Griffith – Senators owner – was strapped for cash and sent his player-manager to Boston despite Cronin being married to Griffith’s niece.
Managers – as the old baseball axiom goes – are hired to be fired and in this past decade, the ax has had a regrettable workout disposing of those that even have a history of winning. At one time a .500 finish at the helm of the Red Sox was considered a remarkably successful season. No more.
This century the Red Sox had four managers who have won a flag, but for one manager it was in Japan and not Boston. Now a look at the four who face the local gauntlet of ownership, media, fans, and players.
Terry Francona started the decade out but didn’t gather any World Series trophies. With Francona, it is best to get the bad news on the managerial table and that is the 2011 season or a season with a September that lives in Red Sox infamy. A September when the team went 7-21 and took a playoff lock and blew it all away.
The mere mention of the combination of beer and chicken that supposedly started during the 2010 season and continued into 2011. A party atmosphere by a few star pitchers while the playoff hopes dissolved.,
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Francona had won two World Series, but only blanks since 2007 culminating in the Great Collapse. Francona was in a perfect storm of personal issues with marital difficulties, physical issues, and possible addiction issues with pain medications. The Red Sox didn’t fire, can dismiss or any other euphemism for leaving, but one that was mutual with ownership. Just a simple exercising a buyout option. I will leave off the sarcasm meter on that one.
Francona was as industrious a manager as one will find since he grew up around the game thanks to his father Tito Francona’s extensive major league career. The junior Francona honed skills as a player, minor league manager, coach, and as a manager with the Phillies where he met the fate most do – fired.
Francona was what is noted as a players manager with the ability to insulate players and distractions in the notorious Boston baseball environment. A skill that should be key to the required list of positive traits in Boston. Francona left Boston with the best winning percentage of any team manager with 500 games (.574). But the time had come and the replacement would make Francona or even Pinky Higgins look good.
Pick a problem that can happen to a manager? Clubhouse drama, media confrontations, public disputes, players in revolt, injuries piling up, and losing like the team was back in the early 1960s. Bobby Valentine was brought in to restore order and lost the team, the fans, the management, the media, and his job.
The season with Valentine is most noted by the Nick Punto trade where Boston managed to jettison three fat contracts and three players who displayed as much intensity as a librarian convention. A tossing in of the competitive towel – a surrender to the most obvious numbers game that clearly showed the season was over. I will give “Bobby V.” credit on two counts: He never lost his sense of humor and his honesty.
I wonder if Valentine had been given a different hand before the season started he would have been more successful? If the Punto trade had taken place in March? If veterans had been a bit more accepting in Valentine’s flamboyant style? A noted opposite of the self-deprecating Francona.
Valentine was no novice to the managerial ranks having been at the helm of both the Mets and Rangers, but not without incident. Bobby V also speaks somewhat fluent Japanese from two terms as manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan and one season of winning the Japanese series for which Valentine promptly issued a challenger for a series with the American winner. Two terms because the first ended after a year of hostility with management. Big surprise.
A notable addition to the professional career as a player for John Farrell is two Tommy John Surgeries and a 36-46 record as a pitcher. What Farrell lacked on the mound did not restrict his advancement once he chose the bench over the mound.
Farrell served as Red Sox pitching coach for his close friend Francona for several seasons before moving on to the manager’s hot seat in Toronto. Farrell returned to Boston after the Valentine fiasco to attempt to resuscitate a dysfunctional team. Under Farrell’s leadership, the Red Sox captured another flag taking the 2013 World Series. Then it fell apart.
In 2014 a hangover from the series manifested itself in the offense and the Red Sox plummeted faster than a runaway mine elevator. From first to worst became the symbolic slogan for the disgruntled within Red Sox Nation. Would 2015 improve?
For both Farrell and the team, 2015 was another year to wallow in misery as the Red Sox again managed to secure the bottom rung of the American League East. And for Farrell, it was health as he had to leave the team for treatment of lymphoma. If there was any good news for Farrell it was he was set to return for 2016.
The two seasons – 2016 and 2017 – saw the Red Sox win the AL East back-to-back with identical 93-69 records. The problem for Farrell is the identical didn’t stop there, but the Red Sox managed back-to-back departures in the first round. The other specter is the Red Sox now had Dave Dombroski running the show and Farrell was a holdover.
Farrell was gone after 2017 as a manager. Just why? There were mitigating circumstances with injuries and rare is the team and manager that does not have to push forward despite that, but the usual flap about clubhouse issues surfaced especially with the departure of David Ortiz as a stabilizing force. The public antics of David Price, a beanball war with the O’s, and some sign-stealing just gave an excuse to push the fire button and DD most certainly did.
Alex Cora once played for the Red Sox and looking at his statistical chart five others. Cora was a utility player – good enough to give you a few weeks, but not good enough for the long haul. Given a starting role the inevitable looking for an upgrade was usually attached to Cora’s benching or departure.
Cora took not the usual path to the top slot with a series of coaching and managerial jobs – usually in the baseball bushes but jumped into broadcasting with ESPN. Then an opportunity came knocking with the Astros as bench coach and the pathway it usually presents to managerial opportunity. With an Astros World Series ring, Cora became hot property and Boston took the plunge.
No manager ever had a more profitable first season or make that any season than Cora did in 2018. A team record for wins and keyed by a playoff execution of the Yankees is always a plus. Cora’s team cut like locusts through a wheat field, putting the Astros to the golf course and Dodgers another year of disappointment. Everything went right which sets up 2019 for everything to go wrong.
Was it resting the players too much in spring training? The collapse of the pitching staff? Clubhouse distractions? All the buttons that were pushed in 2018 were golden and turned to swamp gas in 2019. Then the woes begin. Cora was Dombrowski’s guy and DD is gone. Cora may be implicated in a sigh stealing mess while with the Astros. Cora is now in charge of a team in transitions and 2020 may be a season of evaluation.
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Cora is the first Hispanic manager the Red Sox hired and therefore will have the dubious honor of being the first Red Sox Hispanic manager fired. Managers get fired and even very successful managers get fired. What Cora does have is the clubhouse and an ability to motivate young players and understand his roster – a leftover from his playing days. But if the Red Sox post another 84 wins and not playoff Cora will be gone.