Bob McClure Out as Red Sox Pitching Coach

For all the talk about Bobby Valentine being forced out as manager of the Boston Red Sox, it sure appears as if he has the backing of the front office. When the manager publicly squabbled with Kevin Youkilis, it wasn’t long before Youk was traded away. Word is that Bobby V preferred Ryan Lavarnway to Kelly Shoppach going back to Spring Training and Shoppach was recently dealt away as well.

Now, the pitching coach Valentine inherited when he got the job is Boston has been shown the door. Bob McClure was relieved of his duties on Monday. Randy Niemann, who was serving as McClure’s assistant this year after previously serving on Valentine’s staff with the Mets, will take over the duties for the remainder of the year.

McClure previously served as pitching coach for the Rockies and Royals and received much of the credit for the success of Zack Greinke in Kansas City. The Red Sox rank 11th in the league with a 4.30 ERA, but it sure feels like this Sox club has larger issues than having too many pitching coaches. This is just the latest in a season-long drama taking place at Fenway Park.

Not a day goes by without some new nugget of information or rumor generating from Boston’s clubhouse. The story is no longer about the club that is woefully underachieving a season after an epic late-season collapse. Now, the Red Sox have become a soap opera the likes baseball hasn’t seen since George Steinbrenner’s Yankees clubs of the mid-1980s.

The bad news for the players who so obviously want Valentine’s ouster is that McClure firing is just one more vote of confidence from the front office in backing their manager.

For more on the Red Sox, see BoSox Injection.

John Parent is the Senior Director of Human Resources for the FanSided Network. He can be reached at john.parent@fansided.com or via Twitter @JohnJParent.