The Boston Red Sox initiated a major reshaping of their front office yesterday by hiring Dave Dombrowski as President of Baseball Operations. Current general manager Ben Cherington will stay on to help Dombrowski with the transition but will then step down from his position.
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Dombrowski became a hot commodity on the baseball executive market after being dismissed from his post as GM of the Detroit Tigers, a position he had held for 14 seasons. The Blue Jays, Mariners and other teams had shown interest, but Dombrowski chose to join the Red Sox after being given full authority over baseball decision-making.
For Dombrowski, taking the opportunity available in Boston was a complete no-brainer:
"“Although I did have other potential options within baseball, there was no option that stood out as clearly as the chance to come to Boston and win with the Red Sox. Boston is a baseball city like no other and its history and traditions are unique in our game.”"
The veteran executive will now have to right a Red Sox ship that has gone well off-course in 2015. Boston sports a 53-66 record, a distant 13.5 games out of the American League East division lead. The club’s struggles are a particular disappointment after an active offseason in which sizable contracts were handed out to players like Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval.
Fans will likely view the legacy of Ben Cherington, who turned down the option to remain with the organization in the wake of Dombrowski’s hiring, as a mixed bag. The team won a World Series under his watch in 2013, but it is now staring down its third last-place finish in four seasons.
While he was lauded for the 2012 mega-trade with the Dodgers that rid the Sox of numerous bad contracts, Cherington has faced criticism more recently for underperforming free agent signings (see Ramirez and Sandoval) and a poorly constructed pitching staff (see Rick Porcello extension).
By bringing in Dombrowski, Boston is now committing to new leadership and a new direction. As Jon Heyman of CBS Sports notes, their new President’s arrival could signal a major shift in philosophy for the typically analytics-minded Red Sox. Dombrowski has a reputation for his old-school, traditionalist mindset, which flies in the face of the Moneyball-inspired strategies employed by the Sox since the Theo Epstein days. While those methods may not be abandoned entirely, Dombrowski will surely use his new autonomy to integrate his own philosophies into Boston’s organizational practices.
Making a big move at the top like this is certainly a significant risk, but it’s hard to argue that the Red Sox didn’t need to institute some kind of tangible change. World championships can buy you a lot of goodwill, but in a division that is highly competitive season after season, the down years were becoming a bit too frequent.
With Dombrowski, Boston gets a seasoned front office mind who is well-respected throughout the league. Though he may have worn out his welcome in Detroit, his track record there is difficult to ignore. Under his guidance, the Tigers made five postseason appearances and won two American League pennants from 2002-2014, including four consecutive first-place finishes in the AL Central beginning in 2011. He has been praised for his trade acumen, particularly for the deal that sent Miguel Cabrera to Detroit.
Dombrowski now gets the chance to shape one of Major League Baseball’s most prominent franchises from the top down, and he could start by hand-picking a new general manager. Supposedly he is eyeing Frank Wren, who was most recently GM of the Braves until last year and worked with Dombrowski in the Expos and Marlins organizations. Former Angels GM Jerry Dipoto is also at the table, having accepted a temporary advisory role with the Red Sox after resigning from the Halos.
The Boston Red Sox and their fans have been thinking about next year for a while, and now they are getting a sense of what that future may look like. Only time will tell, but they will hope that Dave Dombrowski’s hiring is the big change that transforms them back into an AL East powerhouse.