Boston Red Sox: Should Ron Roenicke be replaced before he starts?

Should BoSox Consider Replacing Ron Roenicke?

Now there are certainly worse candidates to lead a team than Roenicke and while he is well-respected throughout the game and managed parts of five seasons in Milwaukee the question still burns, will he be the right fit?

He knows the team, he knows the organization and how they operate and has developed a relationship with players over his last two seasons as bench coach. As we saw so much with Alex Cora as he was praised for it throughout the 2018 season, communication is key.

Cora had a way of communicating with players that seemed unparalleled to other managers. His poise and professionalism seemingly at all times were something to be admired and allowed him to appear approachable to players.

With English as his second language, Cora always seemed to know what to say, what button to push, and when to push it. Every success just came naturally to him and every failure was not met with regret but an explanation as to why that decision was.

Being a younger manager with a mind for advanced analytics Cora was very well equipped to lead a young and hungry Red Sox team and with his tenure cut short, we are left thinking whether or not his successor will have what it takes to man the ship once more.

However, Roenicke did win 96 games with Milwaukee in 2011 while finishing second to Kirk Gibson in the Manager of the Year voting and has eight seasons in the Major Leagues. He also did have the benefit of working under Cora and seeing how he operated on a day-to-day basis.

A former outfielder, one can’t help but get the feeling that 63-year-old will instill an old-school climate in an old-school ballpark while playing a new-school game.

Should BoSox Consider Replacing Ron Roenicke?

Typically when an organization has a changing of the guard in the front office, the new guard moves in, and with him comes his guys, making it his front office, his team, his manager. In this case, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom chose to keep this manager.

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An odd decision nonetheless and given Bloom’s new status in Boston, a manager whose ear he could bend that he hires for his regime would be the first real step in making this his team.

Losing perennial All-Star Mookie Betts and David Price to Los Angeles and Alex Cora to a suspension, surely the Boston Red Sox clubhouse will have a different feel than those of years passed. Contrary to popular belief a manager’s job does not revolve around signaling for hit and runs and delayed steals.

No, a manager’s job is to manage the 25 different egos he has in his clubhouse. A manager’s job is to manufacture a clubhouse climate that keeps everyone loose while dealing with the stress of a 162 game season.

Although I believe his time in Boston will be short-lived, I still hesitate at the thought that Ron Roenicke can maintain if not expand upon the clubhouse culture that Alex Cora was able to build.