Boston Red Sox: Ken Rosenthal Suspects Farrell Could Be Fired This Week
The Boston Red Sox currently sit 4.5 games back of the New York Yankees for first place in the AL East. Their record of 22-21 represents how underwhelming their play has been. They haven’t gone lower than .500 yet, but they’ve played like a .500 team thus far.
This past weekend, the Boston Red Sox narrowly avoided getting swept in four games by the Oakland Athletics — a team that entered the series at 17-23 and at the bottom of the AL West. The A’s can be best described as a Triple-A squad turned MLB team for the sake of filling up one of the worst markets in baseball. But, the Red Sox still managed to almost be swept away by the brooms of the A’s and their eight fans.
With the mediocre play of the team thus far, there is a large possibility of Manager John Farrell being fired before week’s end according to Ken Rosenthal.
“I don’t know where this is going,” Rosenthal said Sunday night on MLB Network. “It’s an interesting question. If he was fired this week, would I be surprised? No. If he managed the rest of the season and they won the division, would I be surprised? Also no.”
Rosenthal also expressed concern over the incident between Drew Pomeranz and Farrell, as well as the Dustin Pedroia comments after Manny Machado was thrown at.
“This kind of move happens every day in the game. You don’t always see that,” Rosenthal stated of the Pomeranz-Farrell scuffle. “And that to me, along with the Pedroia thing, signals — I don’t want to say a lack of respect, but maybe a lack of control. And that is disturbing.”
Over the past year or two, Farrell has been on the hot seat numerous times. But with the struggles of late and the actions by some of the team, it’s hard not to believe that Farrell may be on his way out.
Farrell was just what the team needed in 2013: a manager who had been there during the good times in the late-2000s and could bring back a winning culture full of dedication, consistency, and heart. And for one year, he brought that back, as they won the World Series.
More from Boston Red Sox
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- Stock Up, Stock Down: Braves, Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox
- Boston Red Sox: The 4 players who are on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Stock Up, Stock Down: Two teams rising, two falling post-trade deadline
But since then, it has been quite different. There has been no consistency with the team and the focus doesn’t seem to be there. Last year, even though they had 93 wins and finished in first place, Farrell was rumored to be on the hot seat at numerous times.
Farrell is a lackluster in-game manager and may not actually be the right guy to help develop these younger, developing stars such as Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Andrew Benintendi, and Mookie Betts. Farrell learned how to manage a ball club under Terry Francona during his tenure with Boston from 2007 to 2010. Francona is one of the greatest managers in MLB history, however he is a player’s manager, meaning that he sort of lets the players play and do their own thing. That works perfectly with a team full of veterans, but not so much with a bunch of young, budding stars.
During Farrell’s first time in Boston as a pitching coach, he watched Francona manage veteran’s egos. He never truly got to see how to manage young stars.
Next: There's a Red Sox who is an early front-runner for the Cy Young.
The probability of the Sox firing Farrell is high, however I don’t believe they do it this week. If Torey Lovullo was still the bench coach, they would have done it this week and immediately promoted Lovullo to manager. But with there not being an obvious replacement, the Red Sox will wait on Farrell and evaluate how he and the Sox do in their next two series against the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners.
My gut instinct tells me that Farrell will not be fired this year. I’ve seen this narrative too many times and here in Boston, Farrell is always on the hot seat. The only difference is that now the seat is just hotter than ever.