The Red Sox will replace president and CEO Larry Lucchino by the end of the season, reports Michael Silverman and Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald. Lucchino’s contract expires at the end of the season. The Red Sox have reportedly been working on a succession plan for some time with rumors of a shake up first reported during spring training.
While executive turnover in baseball can be fraught with drama, it appears that Lucchino and the Red Sox are still on good terms. Chairman Tom Werner spoke about reaching a new agreement with Lucchino, saying “we are hopeful…we will conclude an agreement with Larry going forward where he will continue to be an integral part of upper management.” Werner went on to describe an advisory role.
Lucchino, 70, helped to guide the franchise to three World Series victories since owner John Henry first purchased the club in 2002. He is also known for overseeing the renovation of historic Fenway Park and the acquisition of the Pawtucket Red Sox. He has had a less prominent influence on the team this season in part due to a serious motorcycle accident sustained over the winter.
Executive vice president and COO Sam Kennedy will be promoted to club president. However, unlike Lucchino, Kennedy is not expected to have a role in baseball operations. Kennedy, 42, has worked with Lucchino for 20 years. Per Luchhino, “he’s certainly my choice, as well as that of John and Tom, to be promoted to the position of president.” Kennedy has been slowly taking over Lucchino’s responsibilities throughout the season.
This is exactly what the Red Sox need. An overhaul of management and a new voice. The current group doesn’t ever seem to have a sustainable plan just react, in fact, overreact to what happened the previous year. Bring in a President of baseball operations that knows the game and has experience, and then look at a new GM. It needs to be a change. Mike Hazen might be deserving in some peoples’ eyes, but a change in voice is necessary. If Henry & Co. could go out, and lure a Billy Beane or a Dan Duquette or even a Dave Dombrowski away and into the president’s chair, then have that new president restaff as needed.
They weren’t able to lure Beane away the first time. Can they this time? Also, no way Angelos allows Duquette to even be interviewed by Boston.
Let me rephrase about Duquette, the Orioles won’t even allow Boston to talk to Duquette.
Time to move beyond Beane as well. I think there’s a time for certain people… And then the window closes.
I wasn’t specifically dead set on any of these 3 guys. Just a few examples of a new voice that I think could get a promotion into the President’s spot and really do this organization some good.
The article says that they’re making Sam Kennedy president.
Sam Kennedy is getting the promotion to Lucchino’s old spot, but several Boston sources have said that he will not have a hand in baseball ops and that spot will need to be filled
No way on Duquette. I mean he might be better as a higher up but the Sox had him as a GM. Other than some high profile free agent deals he was not very good at developing players, the Sox’ farm system was awful, and he had issues getting along with players and coaches alike.
it took Epstein 2 years to get to World Champ many of the players there were from Duquette
I’m assuming Red Sox fans are happy? More often than not, this is the guy they fault when anything goes wrong with the team.
When bad things keep happening to Boston where Valentine leaves, Francona leaves and Ferrell could leave, but stuff still isnt going right, it’s time for the front office to be examined with a fine tooth comb.
I have been harsh on Lucchino over the past 5 or so years. I loved the guy for bringing 2 championships to Boston, but he had his hand in signing Lackey, Crawford, manager hirings, the forcing out of Epstein and Tito, the Valentine hiring, and I’d bet the Panda and Hanley signings as well. He was good for awhile, but I think a new FO identity needs to be founded, which starts with a new baseball ops president, no more Ben Cherington, no more Mike Hazen, no more Bill James etc. The worst thing that can happen now is Werner stepping into the baseball side of things, they need a true baseball mind in that spot
He was a great business/moneymaking guy and added alot of stuff to save Fenway and make it more profitable/sustainable for another few decades. But when it came to personnel decisions he wasn’t as knowledgable and tried to go for the “sexy” players. He also passed on guys like Jose Bautista
I, for one, am not happy. This is the “baseball guy” in our front office. He is a literal genius. He is responsible for everything that has happened to this organization from circa 2006 through 2013. He took a beat up old ballpark that holds a mere 37,000 and turned it into a more modern, inviting environment. He rebuilt our scouting and development architecture. He played the “bad cop” whenever that role was needed to accomplish a reasonable goal. He inventively structured contracts, like Lackey’s, to give our team some protection against undisclosed/unseen injuries. And he constantly advocated for putting a strong team on the field. You can fault some of his player selections, but you cannot say he withheld on the payroll. He agreed to sign the big contracts, with the legitimate hopes of entertaining the Nation.
No, this is not a good thing. But more importantly, this should not serve as a distraction from the miserable failings of the remainder of our front office in baseball operations. Ben Cherington has proven to have many more flaws than positives in his decision-making processes. The leaving of Lucchino should not satisfy the fan base that the change that is needed has already been made.
I agree that changes cannot stop here, but this was as good a start as any. Lucchino is said to be staying around as an advisor of some sort for the business end of it, and I am more than happy to hear that. But his hiring decisions for baseball ops have not been very successful since Epstein left. Like I have been preaching, a baseball mind needs to be brought in to the baseball ops role, and a new gm needs to be appointed so this team can find an identity and formulate a plan, and stick to that plan. All Lucchino, Cherington, and the rest of this FO has done has overreacted to the problems of the previous year instead of building a balanced team.
@Jb…what are in the world are you talking about with the Red Sox wanting Duquette? He already tried and failed in Boston before being replaced by a regime that won 3 titles. Look at Baltimore now; somehow they haven’t developed any young talent, have a mediocre major league team with prominent free agents…Duquette is a disaster.
Sorry to say, but I give Duquette a lot of credit for that ’04 ring. Theo inherited a good portion of that team from the Duquette regime. Theo’s did have a few key signings and trades that pushed them over, but Duquette laid the ground work
That is correct.
Manny
Stonehands, you are absolutely correct. With small tips of the hat to interim GM Mike Port and Larry Lucchino.
He did well with high profile free agent signings, but there were a ton of disasters mixed in with that. Mike Lansing, Dante Bichette, Mark Portugal, Jose Offerman, Ed Sprague.
On top of that the farm system was terrible and we rarely had homegrown guys come out of that era. Few exceptions like Nomar but overall terrible.
He also would side against his managers on player discipline issues
Larry, take Ben and John F. with you, please.
Werner and Henry are the problems, not Ferrell. Cherington was harolded by Henry, Werner & Lucchino, so maybe Ben must go, but Johnny F doesn’t deserve the fault. The men who built the train with mechanical problems are more at blame than the conductor who was hired after the fact.
You’re upset with the owner of the train.
Henry and Werner are phenominal owners. They dish money out into the team at the drop of the hat and have cared about winning throughout their tenure, they just need to stay out of the baseball ops. Lucchino and downward need to be shown the door. That includes Farrell because If the sox were to get a new baseball ops and gm, they should be able to pick their guy
Cherington doesn’t need to go. He deserves at least another year. Despite poor performance, the team is still intact to be competitive in the future as the farm system hasn’t been traded away. As well, a lot of his deals have been unfortunate. Nobody could’ve seen Porcello, Sandoval, or Ramirez struggling as they have. While he hasn’t done a fantastic job, he has done well enough to where his job shouldn’t be on the line at this moment.
@Stonehands Regarding the 2004 roster, the entire infield of Millar, Bellhorn, Cabrera and Mueller were Epstein’s guys, as well as Ortiz. That’s over half of the starting lineup. Throw in Schilling and Arroyo in the rotation, plus Foulke and Timlin in the bullpen, and that’s nine key guys all brought in by Theo. Saying that DD deserves credit for 04 is akin to saying that Theo deserves credit for 13′ because he left Pedroia and Ortiz for Cherington. Duquette has done a decent job with the Orioles, particularly on low-budget reclamation projects, but the Red Sox were revolutionized when he left town.
Are we forgetting the 2 biggest pieces of that ’04 championship? I’m pretty sure we don’t get anywhere close to that ring without Pedro or Manny. To Clarify what I said, that was an obvious win for Epstein, and he deserves the majority of the credit for putting that team together, but you can’t ignore the fact the Duquette brought in 2 of the biggest contributors, as well as Derek Lowe, Wakefield, Varitek, among others, the farm was Duquette’s as well. You can exactly say he had nothing to do with it
low-budget reclamation projects are Duquette’s claim to fame. Sometimes they worked really well (Saberhagen, Wakefield,) and sometimes they REALLY did not.
@Stonehands Of course I didn’t forget those guys but simply signing for or trading for the top available players doesn’t equal a championship team. When a team signs David Price this winter I won’t categorize the signing team’s GM as “great” simply for the fact that he signed Price. It’s obvious that Price is the best pitcher on the market and if your team has the wherewithal to sign him and the need, then you do it.
With that 04 team, no one had any idea how Millar, Bellhorn, Mueller and especially Ortiz would perform. Finding those types of guys to put a team over the top is what a championship GM does, and what Duquette never could.
Red Sox fans who are now critical of Red Sox President Larry Lucchino are hypocrites. The man oversaw 3 World Series under his watch. No more 1918 chants from Yankee fans etc,
But the Red Sox hat wearing fans and Media in 2015 are frauds. We are arrogant and delusional this is a good franchise now. Strapped with over paid FA’s and $160 million on Cuban FA busts not to mention Joe Kelly and Allen Craig. The wink wink wink kidding ourselves David Ortiz is ever going to the HOF when he USED PED’s and then we criticize Aroid and Clemens? Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee.
Lets enjoy our past WS wins, we earned them especially those over age 40 who suffered so long before 2004. But lets not make believe this is nothing more then a last place team with a $200 million payroll and no farm system.