Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski announced that manager John Farrell will return in 2017. “John Farrell will be our manager for 2017. He is all set, and his whole staff will be invited back,” declared Dombrowski (via the Associated Press). Farrell, whom Dombrowski called “our leader going forward,” was at the helm of a 93-69 team in 2016 that bounced back from two straight last-place finishes to win the AL East. Entering the year, the Red Sox’s most recent division title came in 2013, when the Farrell-led club also won the World Series. The Red Sox won’t reach that goal this year, of course, as the Indians swept them out of the ALDS on Monday. Nevertheless, having gone 339-309 with two playoff berths and a championship in four years, Farrell has done enough to justify a fifth season in Boston, according to Dombrowski.
Here’s more on Boston, which is now turning its focus to the offseason:
- The Red Sox aren’t a lock to pursue an outside replacement for retiring designated hitter David Ortiz, as Rob Bradford of WEEI writes. They could instead shift first baseman Hanley Ramirez to DH and use a committee of Travis Shaw, Pablo Sandoval, Yoan Moncada and Sam Travis at the corner infield positions. As Bradford notes, signing the highest-profile DH candidate set to hit the market, the Blue Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion, would enable the Red Sox to split DH and first between him and Ramirez. On Ramirez’s role going forward, Dombrowski said, “I think he’s capable of doing both. Actually, to me, he did a fine job at first base. Personally, I like the availability of the option of doing both, because I think that if you have that flexibility, it probably fits with us better with the personnel that we have going forward. But we also have to have conversations with Hanley, too, before we get to that point.”
- Dombrowski addressed the status of Sandoval, who missed nearly the entire season after undergoing shoulder surgery in May and was ahead of schedule in his rehab as of late September. “His goal was to be ready, physically, to play in the ALCS. I don’t know that that would’ve happened, because our other people had been there all year, but from a health perspective, he’s really right there, so I think he’ll be healthy next year,” commented Dombrowski (via Ryan Hannable of WEEI). “There’s other guys that I’m sure say they should be the third baseman. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. But he’s been a proven big league performer. If he’s healthy and ready to go, he has a chance to be a good performer for us.” Sandoval has been a major disappointment since the Red Sox signed him to a five-year, $95MM deal in November 2014, but the organization doesn’t seem down on him. Dombrowski said the ex-Giant “should be proud” of the rehab work he has done since his injury. Notably, Bradford reported last month that Sandoval had lost 22 pounds.
- Left-hander Drew Pomeranz endured an underwhelming second half after the Red Sox acquired him from the Padres for top pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza in July. Of course, Boston complained last month about the lack of medical information the Padres disclosed prior to the trade, and Major League Baseball also suspended Friars GM A.J. Preller for 30 days without pay. The Red Sox skipped Pomeranz’s final start of the regular season because he was dealing with forearm soreness, and he then pitched out of the bullpen in the playoffs. Going forward, Dombrowski expects Pomeranz to figure into Boston’s rotation, though he cautioned that his medicals will have to check out. “We look forward to him being part of our rotation. We feel for him. I’m hopeful that he’ll be OK going into next year and the doctors will be the ones that advise us on that, but I think he will be,” stated Dombrowski (via Hannable).
- In order to remain with the Red Sox, soon-to-be free agent reliever Koji Uehara will likely have to take a pay cut from his $9MM salary, per Hannable. Given Uehara’s age (he’ll be 42 next April), that’s not a surprise. Uehara remains a highly effective late-game option, though, as he recorded a 3.45 ERA, 12.06 K/9 and 2.11 BB/9 over 47 innings in 2016. Dombrowski revealed that Uehara “wants to continue pitching,” but the executive isn’t sure if the Red Sox will bring the right-hander back for a fifth year. “I don’t know how you really interpret a guy going forward at that. I don’t have any special formula,” said Dombrowski. “But I will also tell you Koji’s a hard guy to evaluate when he’s younger and healthy. Because he’s a very abnormal type pitcher. I mean how many guys that are throwing 88 mph blow the ball by you on a consistent basis? So he’s a tough evaluation no matter what.”
Now the Red Sox say they hope Pomeranz will be ok going into next year? If there truly was concern, why still use him out of the bullpen? He looked fine to me, but sounds like they are still salty about the deal even though they could have traded back.
Trading back by no means was a fair option. If they sent him back then they are stuck in a playoff race post-deadline with Henry Owens as their 5th starter. The Sox gave up excess talent for an injured starter due to the Padres withholding info from them.
That said, this is probably just posturing by the Red Sox just in case they can try to get some type of compensation in the offseason.
The compensation ship has sailed. I think this is actually posturing just in case Pomeranz goes 2-9 next year with a 5.95 ERA before he’s demoted to the bullpen again…..
Completely apart from any questions about medical records, the Sox overpaid for Pomeranz.
Dombrowski seems to be hoping that if he keeps mentioning the vague lack of medical information, the fanbase won’t hold it against him that he hung his season on a pitcher who everyone who NEVER has access to ANY medical records said at the time was a major risk for significant fall=off in the second half because of the increased workload.
Was the issue potentially compounded because Pomeranz was taking anti-inflammatories at the time of the trade? Maybe. But the issue existed in the first place because of Dombrowski’s decision to hitch his wagon to a pitcher who has ONCE in his professional career crossed the 120 inning threshold.
I remain in favor of moving on from John Farrell. 93 wins? True. But, to fall so flat in the playoffs? The Sox looked unprepared, the Sox were pressing. I don’t think Farrell gets the best from his teams and Farrell’s strategies are too often unorganized. 93 wins, I know, but I’m in favor of moving on from Farrell.
If that’s the case, I guess the Rangers should move on from Bannister. Did you expect the Sox to just steamroll the Indians? Well documented ALL year that the rotation was So/So.
Porcello, a Cy Young finalist, was so-so? Price bounced back to have a decent year, not by his standards but he pitched well.
The Sox sputtered to the finish line, thinking that they would turn it on in October. See you in April…
There is no career long (nearly) sox MiLB manager with a team 1st, give it all for me, or sit on the bench type like Joe Morgan in the system to turn to and am kind of scared that if farrell got canned, they would fall prey to that league mandate and just hire some minority manager, only because they never have and no other reason because they NEVER have had one.
I can only think back to one base coach, being the GREAT tommy Harper, who they ran out of town (for no reason) saying he made mistakes with runners, then he had base sloths, such as Jim Rice and Don baylor, Bill Buckner running the bases..
Organization had plenty of time to correct past mistakes without forcing the issue with a manager overnight and i have felt for awhile (before farrell came in) it was going to happen with some awful one.. Say a Dusty Baker/Ron Washington type.
Organization needs to correct it’s mistakes by bringing in more presence (minority) on base coaches, tho do realize Davis as hitting coach was a plus last season.
I understand the argument. I think the counterargument is that there’s no better option. There’s no guarantee that Lovullo wouldn’t refuse the job if Farrell is fired after an AL East title. He’s not going to want for managerial opportunities. And if there isn’t a Joe Maddon or Bruce Bochy out there to replace Farrell, you’re not going to improve the team right now by moving on.
The sox won 93 wins in spite of of Farrell. He’s awful
Dumbest statement despite being not very smart
Ok I’ll admit that grammar was bad, but Farrell is not a good manager. Boston fans have been calling for his head all year. The media has been calling for his head. He constantly got second guessed because of his in game decisions. Hell, he batted Brock holt second for the playoffs. You can say I’m not smart, but you’re the one who’s defending Farrell lol
WOW! “The Media” is calling for his job! That Settles it! That comment right there is interesting. Please Name ONE fan base that doesn’t armchair QB EVERY team?? I could care less about Farrell. Actually, I HATE the Red Sox, but I hate silly, uninformed fans even more.
So you believe Farrell is a good manager?
Idk, but I trust his decision making over fans/media. Your only arguments are, fans/media wanted him gone, and he batted Holt 2nd.
After seeing Dombrowski deal a top-14 (blue chip) prospect essentially for a lefty RELIEVER… I don’t want to see him make ANY trades (I know Pomeranz was already at his career high in innings and he will start the next two seasons but still.. HORRIBLE trade. Most of us knew it. It was also his first great season as a starter.. too much of an unknown. Even lost us game 4).
DD better not trade JBJ and/or Moncada in a deal for Sale or someone similar AND give out another large contract to a guy like EE (who I don’t think is coming here anyways), otherwise we are slowly becoming the same mediocre Tigers team that ultimately cut ties with Dombrowski.
Sorry if I’m sounding harsh, just so upset to have that kind of season for Papi end abruptly like that..
Also unlike many Red Sox fans… I’m fine with keeping Farrell around. Although what does Carl Willis, the pitching coach, even offer… he doesn’t seem to help the pitchers at all. Even Bannister had to assist him throughout the season when the rotation struggled mightily before July.
Sake is way way Way more valuable than JBJ.
JBJ is extremely streaky. he can carry a team almost by himself for a week, then do nothing for a month, other than be one of the finest all around center fielder’s (glove and arm) in the game.
Of the 3 kids with 2-3years of service that seem to have lots of value? (betts/Bogaerts/Bradley) IMO JBJ is the most easily replaced, not to mention possibly over rated by some GM out there in trade talks for a really good pitcher.
Sale 2016 bWAR: 4.9
JBJ 2016 bWAR: 5.3
Obviously WAR is nowhere near a “be all end all” stat. But to say Sale is “way way way” more valuable is asinine.
And what about looking at a year or 2 prior as opposed to just 1 year?
Porcello had a higher WAR than Sale too but I don’t think anybody would take him over Sale if they had to pick one or the other.
Sale is a top of the rotation pitcher. Bradley is very good position player. It’s a question of relative scarcity. The way players are valued these days, Sales is worth more than Bradley. He’s harder to replace. That’s not a knock on Bradley, just generally where the market is right now. Whether the Red Sox would trade Bradley for Sales is basically irrelevant. There are plenty of teams out there who would offer more than Bradley is worth in a deal for Sale.
That may be true… but JBJ + Moncada for Sale? No thank you at all.
Well That I agree with.
Agreed. I’d trade JBJ today if it meant acquiring Chris Sale. JBJ is too inconsistent, he hit .233 in the second half. I’m not a JBJ fan, I think he’s the Clay Buchholz of position players. My off-season moves would be centered around replacing Farrell and shipping JBJ (oh, yes, and move on from Buchholz!).
What do you think would be a fair trade for Sale or Quintana?
No such thing as a fair trade for a quality #1 or #2 starter. Because so few of them are out there, and even fewer are available for trade, you must overpay to get one of them, and teams who are looking to deal one have already thrown in the towel for the year and will be looking at your team’s best prospects. It is rare that a B+ pitcher is traded for a B+ hitter in a 1:1 deal.
We need some fresh arms
They need Kopech to take a major step forward with no hitches this season is what they need. other than him? The organization has nothing beside Groome resembling a 1-3SP talent in the organizational system to dream upon, other than possibly Pennington.
They really didn’t draft anything of remote value this season other than Groome to me. A very disappointing draft after the 1st pick. Back end starters getting overslot, utility players and swing and miss types.
I’d agree with the fresh arms nothing like having a bunch of young power arms coming through the system but as far as nothing in this draft besides groome u would be right but that’s because of groome who they didn’t know exactly how much it would take to sign so they drafted a lot of under slot college seniors
What swayed Dombrowski from canning Farrell? Was it John’s sterling 1-8 record after the win streak, his boneheaded use of Steven Wright as a pinch-runner, ending his season or his idiotic use of Blake Swihart at a position he couldn’t play ending HIS season? Farrell has made guys like John McNamara and Grady Little look like geniuses.
Watched almost all of the Sox games this year thanks the MLB package. In my opinion the reason that the Sox fell apart at the end was due to their youngsters just running out of gas. The baseball season is a long season and they all had more at bats then they ever had at the major league level. They all looked like their bats had slowed down at the end of the season including Mookie. I think they will all be just fine this was a learning experience for them and I think they will be better prepared next year for the long haul. It really sucks that Papi had to go out like that but the Sox will back.
They will never win with Dombrowski. He is going to trade the farm system away for some bad overpaid contracts ( Price). Don’t forget sox fans the Panda will be back. Can’t trade him or pay that much to play in minors.
If he’s all but useless they may. They’re doing that with Castillo