Lucchino’s Departure From Boston Creates Disastertunity 

Another day another tire fire. The Red Sox were beat by the Yankees 13-3 last night, dropping their record to 47-60. The team is in last place in the AL East again and looks destined for their third last place finish in four seasons, though there is a World Series win sandwiched in there (is a World Series a sandwich?) so it’s not like things are really that bad. Still, for a team of Boston’s means and expectations, a run of futility like this usually presages changes at the top, and low and behold, that’s exactly what has happened.

Two days ago it leaked out that Larry Lucchino, in the post of team president and CEO since 2002, would step down at the end of the season. He’ll be replaced by Sam Kennedy. Not exactly a bloodletting, but it should be noted that Kennedy will take only the CEO title (officially Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer) and focus solely on the business side of things. This leaves a hole in Boston’s baseball operations department. The Red Sox could let things sit as they are, with General Manager Ben Cherington in charge and right-hand-men Allard Baird, Brian O’Halloran, and Mike Hazen directly below him in the organizational structure, but there’s that impending three last place finishes in four seasons thing, so that seems unlikely. And when you consider the smoke from the media around a new addition to baseball operations combined with the removal of Lucchino, who is supposedly stepping down due to age but who rumors persist is poised to join another team rather than retire, then you’re entering the realm of ‘especially likely’.

The Red Sox have had essentially the same front office philosophy since John Henry bought the team in 2002 from the estate of the late team owner Tom Yawkey. When he did so, Henry sought to modernize both the team and the stadium, and he brought Lucchino in from San Diego to help accomplish that. Lucchino’s management style was often abrasive and occasionally caused consternation in the fanbase and even in the team’s front office. For example, there’s the time in 2005 following the Red Sox first World Series win in 86 years that GM Theo Epstein quit even though the team had met his contact demands because, in essence, he couldn’t stomach working under Lucchino any more. Epstein had been on the job all of three seasons at that point, but instead of accepting $1.5 million per season to run the team he grew up rooting for, he snuck out the back door in a gorilla suit. That’s Larry Lucchino.

But the real question is what does this all mean for the Red Sox, and the answer is ‘it depends.’ It depends on how team owner John Henry and co-owner Tom Werner decide to move forward. Ben Cherington hasn’t made a great case that he should be the guy to run baseball operations by himself with the team’s last place finishes and the way the last off-season turned out, but then Henry has also made it clear recently how he feels about all that. Back in early June when there was still a slim chance the Red Sox might not be awful, Henry spoke to the media about both Cherington and manager John Farrell.

The general manager is going to be the general manager of this club for a very long time. I have nothing but respect for him and the job that he does. I think we’ve been on the same wavelength, so you have to blame ownership as much as you can blame the general manager. We have a certain philosophy, we’ve talked a lot about adjusting that philosophy. As I said earlier, I’m not sure that just the players need to make adjustments. In fact, I’m sure about that. There are adjustments we need to make as an organization. Ben will make those adjustments and he’ll lead that process. But I think he and his people are the right people to do that.

That doesn’t leave a lot of gray area. Henry trusts Cherington and by extension Farrell to be the guys in charge who can bring about whatever change the organization needs. It was about as strong an endorsement as endorsements go. There is one caveat, however. It was said two months ago and since then the Red Sox have gone 25-31. That’s not to say six games under .500 in a small sample should or will change Henry’s feelings on the matter, but it should also be noted that when Henry made the above statements the team was still thought to be competitive and Larry Lucchino was still the team’s president and CEO.

Henry brought in Lucchino, Lucchino brought in Epstein, and Cherington learned under Epstein and took over when he departed (both times, in fact). Together that combination of men has brought about the most success the Boston Red Sox have seen in the past century. That isn’t something to be dismissed out of hand. Henry isn’t perfect though. When Epstein left, the team attempted to give the GM job to Kevin Towers and there was lots of talk about J.P. Ricciardi as a possible fit as well. What’s more, Boston Globe columnist Nick Cafardo recently published a list of men who could take over the reigns from Lucchino and lead Boston’s baseball operations department. That list included, shockingly, Kevin Towers and J.P. Ricchiardi. It also included Kenny Williams, Joe Garagiola Jr, Dan O’Dowd, and Jim Bowden. Ruben Amaro must have been left off by accident. If you’re a Red Sox hater that list must look a delicious pizza after a day of fasting. Cafardo’s analysis isn’t my cup of tea, but he is a connected reporter and when he puts out something like this that appears to be out of left field, it often ends up with at least some grain of truth to it, if not more than a grain.

Adding Towers, Williams, or someone else of that ilk would likely signal a new way of doing things in Boston, a step away from the analytical bent that Henry instituted when he first took over the team 13 years ago and a step towards old-school scouting and gut analysis. Perhaps Henry perceives that this is what Boston needs. Perhaps the team under Cherington has been relying too much on analytics, or too much on the wrong kind of scouting-based player analysis, but to me, stepping away from any information is a bad idea. Information is good, and more information is better. It’s what is done with that information that defines how good the front office is at their jobs. While there is a chance the team could turn to a Towers or someone comparable who would take the team in a backwards direction away from analytics, there’s also a chance Lucchino’s departure will be a boon to the organization. After all, it was Lucchino who reportedly championed bringing in Bobby Valentine as manager and we all saw how that turned out.

Change creates opportunity, and after what will likely be the third last place finish in the last four seasons, the Red Sox are poised to undergo some opportunity. Henry was the one who brought the Red Sox organization into the light after decades of cronyism, racism, and straight incompetence. Don’t expect that to fundamentally change, but the way the team has played on the field in recent seasons could shake anyone’s faith in the specific way the organization has been approaching baseball analysis. Lucchino’s departure represents a chance to alter that philosophy, for the better or not.