MLB: The Five Best Front Offices in Baseball Right Now
By s.a. rose
- Boston Red Sox / Dave Dombrowski
This might be a bit of a legacy award. Dombrowski’s first key moves with Boston were to make David Price a rich man and trade for Craig Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres. While these moves did not revolutionize the game, they did help the Red Sox capture a division title in the very competitive AL East of 2016.
That said, the two best Winter Meeting moves of the last ten years belong to Dombrowski while he was with the Tigers. In 2007, Dombrowski traded his top two prospects at the time — Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller (that kind of worked against him in Boston this postseason) for a 24 year old Miguel Cabrera. In 2009, Dombrowski was the architect of a three-team deal that would land his club future Cy Young award winner, Max Scherzer.
Can Dombrowski recreate his Winter Meeting magic from his days in Detroit? Having had over a year now to evaluate what he has in Boston, it would not be a surprise to see the Red Sox make a blockbuster move or two at these Meetings to stay on top in the AL East.
2016 Results: AL East Champs; 93-69
Cost per Win (2016): $2,313,616.52 (Rank: 26th)
Best Winter Moves: FA Signing of David Price from division rival; trade for a top closer in Craig Kimbrel; acquire Carson Smith
Other Impressive Moves: While with Detroit, Dombrowski traded Rick Porcello to Boston in 2014 and followed him there in 2015. A premonition perhaps?
Top Talent Coming Soon: Yoan Moncada (IF), Andrew Benintendi (OF)
What Can We Expect From the Red Sox this week? A trade of their top talent for Chris Sale, replace Big Papi’s middle-of-the-order bat, shed bad contracts given out by the previous regime