It’s been a little more than six months since the Red Sox announced the hiring of Dave Dombrowski as their new president of baseball operations, but the length of his contract was not previously announced or reported. Dombrowski took care of that fact himself today, telling reporters at Red Sox camp in Ft. Myers, Fla., that he signed a five-year contract with Boston (Twitter link via the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.)
The length of Dombrowski’s contract is on par with what highly respected peers such as Theo Epstein (Cubs) and Andrew Friedman (Dodgers) received when signing on as presidents of baseball operations with their new clubs in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Even some rookie GMs have secured five-year pacts over the past 18 months; A.J. Preller’s deal with the Padres was reported to be a five-year deal when he was hired in August of 2014, and Dombrowski’s successor in Detroit, Al Avila, is also said to have received a five-year deal to take the reins for the Tigers.
Dombrowski wasted little time in meeting the widespread expectation that he would significantly alter the fabric of the Red Sox franchise. His most notable offseason transactions included signing David Price to a seven-year, $217MM contract (with an opt-out clause after 2018), trading four prospects (Manuel Margot, Javier Guerra, Logan Allen and Carlos Asuaje) for Craig Kimbrel, swapping Wade Miley and Jonathan Aro for Carson Smith and Roenis Elias of the Mariners, adding outfielder Chris Young on a two-year, $13MM deal.
Next I expect him to trade Joe Kelly (3 more years of arbitration) and one of Swihart or Vazquez for a top-tier pitcher from a non-contender at the deadline.
Unless of course, they are a non-contender at the deadline. Again. Which is likely.
I’d argue its pretty unlikely. The Sox had two areas of glaring weakness last season: Poor starting pitching and a shallow bullpen. So they proceed to get the best SP on the market (the Cy Young runner-up) and then trade for a dominant closer. Their offense was great (they had the 4th most runs scored per game in the MLB last season). They are arguably the most improved team of the offseason. Anything is possible but to think they won’t contend this year is a bold claim; Vegas has them as the second best-bet to win it all.
Most improved??? Try again, just because they added Price, which I agree was a good pickup, and Kimbrel doesn’t mean they have are the most improved team of the offseason. And doesn’t Vegas always have them being good? How many times do they actually live up to the hype? Not too often.
just because stroman
is healthy, doesn’t mean
hes going to be good,
just because the jays added
Chavez and happ doesny
mean they r going to win
the division, just because…..
Every team in the AL East is completely volatile. You could say that about any sports team, but every AL East team has a ton of questions. That whole division can be the best or worst division in the league.
The Red Sox are going to trade 3 years of a pitcher with a combined 3 WAR over four seasons plus a catcher coming off tommy john surgery for a “top-tier” pitcher?
Just because Kelly has 3 more years of control doesn’t make him valuable. Kelly and Swihart or Vaquez isn’t going to get a top tier pitcher. Look at what they gave up for a top tier closer in Kimbrel.
“Kelly and Swihart or Vaquez isn’t going to get a top tier pitcher. ”
Yeah.. Amaro spent half last winter demanding Swihart for Hammels, BEFORE he proved himself as a MLB player. Guess ya better go back to the drawing board on that theory..
He wanted Swihart as the main piece plus a lot more dude.
Hey Buddie, let’s not put Swihart in the Hall of Fame just yet. This will only be his second year and normally those sophomore years can be a bit trying.
Amaro didn’t prove too much when it came to evaluating young talent….all his pitching acquisitions were made with CASH! He asked for a young catcher because he didn’t have one and is primary player at that position was an overpaid over the hill veteran that saw his better days years ago.
The other Red Sox catcher is coming off TJ and who knows if his arm ( which is his primary value behind the plate) will respond and hold up through an entire season. The Red Sox always over hype their prospects and players.
And Joe Kelly….a bag of balls anyone?
over hype their prospects? betts, boggy, pedroia, lester, ellsbury, Erod, papelbon, rizzo, jed lowrie, moss, david Murphy, hanley ramirez,etc,all says no