The Red Sox dismissed manager Bobby Valentine earlier today, and GM Ben Cherington will presumably begin the search for his replacement right away. Here's the latest on the AL East cellar-dwellers…
- Boston has targeted their former pitching coach and current Blue Jays manager John Farrell as Valentine's replacement, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. It would require compensation to lure him away from Toronto, however.
- Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe (on Twitter) confirms that the Sox will go after Farrell, but they also won't rule out former captain Jason Varitek for their managerial post.
- In today's Insider-only blog post, ESPN's Buster Olney wrote about Valentine's tenure in Boston and where things went wrong. It started in Spring Training with an incident involving Mike Aviles.
- WEEI.com's Rob Bradford listed three key moments that contributed to Valentine's downfall with the Red Sox, including the Aviles incident.
Stop. Going. After. John. Farrell.
Stop.
Why not target La Russa?
He’s a proven manager and has zero tolerance for BS.
He could be the right guy.
I actually kind of wanted them to woo him away from retirement last offseason.
That zero tolerance policy seems to be an issue. Dustin Pedroia openly questioned Bobby’s tactics “That’s not how we do things here.” implies that he, and other Red Soxs players, expect the manager to conform to them not vise versa.
A zero tolerance manager is the exact opposite of what the Red Soxs need, save for an entire sweep of the roster.
I really don’t think he’s interested in managing anymore.
I have no interest in hiring anyone who has batted Corey Patterson leadoff.
What is up with the man crush the sox front office has with Farrell?
He’s sooooo dreeeeeamy
It all went wrong once they had interest in hiring Valentine.
This has gotten funny….”Red Sox are targeting John Farrell but we don’t want to pay Blue Jays asking price”. What makes Boston think they can set the asking price for Toronto?
it’s so unusual for teams to disagree about that sort of thing
I don’t get the belief that Farrell is a savior, but if the red sox want him that bad//and the jays don’t see him sticking past this year.. the jays should just let him go. managers shouldn’t be traded.
I would really like Sandy Alomar Jr. If not him I would try to lure Dave Martinez or Jim Hickey away from Tampa.
They’ll hire Varitek for the PR.
Gene Lamont will be the manager in 2013. Guaranteed.
But he can’t windmill that way!
either Jason Varitek or Brad Ausmus would be fine choices in my book.
LaRussa wouldn’t work out in Boston with the organization allowing drinking in the clubhouse during games.
Yeah, LaRussa likes to limit his drinking to immediately before getting into an automobile…
Yeah.. They don’t allow Billy Martin type managers in Boston…
I wonder what Grady Little is up to…
Last I heard, he was sitting under a mango tree with Pedro sticking pins into an Aaron Boone doll.
Hey, how ya doin?
TEK!!!!! Eh, in all seriousness I’m happy Bobby V is gone. I’m sure they will do better in finding a new manager this time around.
If I were the Blue Jays I’d do it. The entire coaching staff of the Jays needs an overhaul and half the roster should be demoted, traded or released. Any sort of “secrets” Farrell would have would be irrelevant. The guy has no leadership abilities at all. NONE. If he had any sway, “fried chicken gate” wouldn’t have happened and the thing with Yunel Escobar wouldn’t have happened. This guy is absolutely clueless.
Take him Red Sox, with open arms.
again.. Yunel is in his late 20’s, he makes his own decisions.
I don’t think Farrell is a good manager.. because of actual concrete
things, like the way he constructs his lineup, in views on base running
and his bullpen management. If you don’t like him, don’t like him for
those reasons..
don’t buy in to the lack of leadership hype, its all fluff, the team
wasn’t talented enough to win and then it had some key injuries. That’s
why they ended up with 90 loses, not because of a perceived lacking of
something unmeasurable.
WHEN Varitek fails… how do they fire him??? Future PR nightmare (that this ownership group probably won’t have to deal with)
You demote him to a lesser position.
they need more than getting rid of Valentine to fix this team, but I guess it’s a start
It starts there. It’s far from over. This team and front office is going to have a lot of fresh, new faces ready to right the ship.
Lets hope they bring in Farrell. With him at the helm, we can expect to finish in 5th place in 2013. Humor aside, I cast my vote for Veritek. Catchers do make good managers.
Varitek for manager? He couldn’t handle his leadership duties as Sox Captain when the roof fell in, now people think he can handle the team as manager? Come on!
Valentine did
Well, Valentine did sign a two-year contract.
He gets $5,000,000 for his troubles too…. Bobby may have the last laugh because that kind of money, for 8 months work, is not too shabby.