JABO: The Downfall of Ben Cherington
There’s a new trend in baseball: fire your outgoing GM on a Tuesday. Two weeks ago, it was Dave Dombrowski getting the axe in Detroit, and last week, the Brewers announced they were going to move Doug Melvin out of the top spot in baseball operations department. Yesterday, the Red Sox joined the Tuesday makeover party, announcing that they were bringing in Dombrowski to serve as their President of Baseball Operations, and as a result, current GM Ben Cherington would be leaving the organization.
So, as we’ve done the last few weeks, let’s take a look at what led to the fall of the Red Sox GM.
Cherington’s story is quite a bit different than either Dombrowski’s or Melvin’s, with both higher highs and lower lows than either managed to reach. Promoted to the GM position after Theo Epstein left for Chicago following the 2011 season, Cherington’s initial impression in Boston was a train wreck. The team dropped from 90 wins in Epstein’s final season to 69 wins in Cherington’s first year, and there was so much internal strife that the team fired manager Bobby Valentine less than a year after they hired him.
But during that miserable last place run, Cherington and his staff did one very wise thing, trading Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and Carl Crawford to the Dodgers for a package of prospects and a mountain of salary relief. It was Cherington’s first big move as a GM, and clearing the roster of dead weight contracts gave the team the flexibility they needed to overhaul the team in quick order. That winter, the front office reallocated that money to sign a series of mid-level free agents, and hit on just about every single one; Shane Victorino, Stephen Drew, and Koji Uehara were significant contributors, and even depth pieces like David Ross and Jonny Gomes helped the team come together.
The result was a worst-to-first turnaround that resulted in a World Series title, the organization’s third championship in 11 seasons after not winning one for 84 years. Cherington’s spread-the-wealth plan was a massive success, and seemed to put him on the path to a long run with the club. And now, less than two years later, he’s being replaced. How did it all go so wrong?
Read the rest on Just a Bit Outside.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
Sensible take, but I have to ask:
With Henry and Lucchino having a reported history of making big splashes to appease the fan base (per Terry Francona’s claims) and wanting to have control (Theo Epstein’s first exit from Boston), is it fair to question to if Cherington had total control of the Sandoval/Ramirez signings?
Or did I miss the memo that Henry/Lucchino were always — and remain — passive observers?
And, of note, this is just my inquiring mind, not a push-blame-on-someone-else question.
With Lucchino already gone and replaced as of a few weeks ago, I don’t think his own power desires come much into play anymore.
Great non-answer.
Q : Did Dombrowski decimate the Tigers farm system?
A from Russ : Dombrowski isn’t with the Tigers anymore.
It’s a fair question, and one that we’ll probably never have a definitive answer to, unless/until somebody writes a tell-all bio. My wild-ass guess is that the Sandoval signing was Lucchino’s baby, and Hanley was Cherington’s. In the latter case I’m more inclined to think so because Cherington’s history with the club means he would likely have been involved in the Sox acquiring Hanley in the first place back in 2000. In the former case I just think Panda is of a piece with Bobby Valentine: Lucchino has a weakness for splashy, headline-grabbing, alpha kind of guys.