Although Boston owner John Henry stated last month that the Red Sox were going to begin by “looking outward” in their search for a new GM/President, Rob Bradford of WEEI believes there is a “growing belief” around baseball that the club will ultimately hand the reins to an internal candidate (link). Although no sources are named in Bradford’s report, the silence surrounding Boston’s hiring search leads the writer to believe that the club may look inward in search of Dave Dombrowski’s successor. As Bradford points out, it’s possible that Henry’s comments were made with half a mind toward luring one of Mike Hazen, Theo Epstein, or Andrew Friedman to Beantown. Now that those potential candidates are staying put, it seems reasonable to wonder if ownership might be evaluating which of the four people currently running Boston’s baseball ops–Eddie Romero, Brian O’Halloran, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira–would be best suited for supreme leadership.
A serious offseason agenda will await whoever ultimately lands the job in Boston. The club has a stated goal of limboing under the CBT “luxury tax” line–an initiative that should prove mighty tough with both big contracts (David Price, Chris Sale) and forthcoming arb raises (Mookie Betts) on the 2020 ledger.
In other news from the American League…
- Mother Nature gave baseball an unscheduled rest day on Wednesday when she decided to pour vociferous showers along the East Coast–could she also have handed the Astros a competitive advantage in the ALCS? This is one question explored by Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, who notes that the pause in the action has allowed manager AJ Hinch to skip Wednesday’s planned Jose Urquidy-plus-bullpen game (link). Instead, the ‘Stros will skip straight to a Justin Verlander/Zack Greinke 1-2 combo for games 4 and 5. “As soon as we can use our best pitchers, the better for us,” Hinch told reporters via teleconference. “It was an easy decision.” The rain delay will force both teams to play the next four games without delay (if games 6 and 7 prove necessary). This state of affairs figures to favor Houston, considering that their rotation makes them slightly less bullpen-reliant than New York. Of course, October is where the unexpected so often comes to pass, so it’s important to remember that Rome’s forecast is exactly that.
All that tells me is that there is no better solution then what they have now. I wonder if Hunnicut will not retire but join Tony Larrusa in Boston?
LaRussa is a special assistant in Baseball Ops. Honeycutt, is staying with Dodgers just in different role
Thank you for not only correcting the information, but the ghastly spelling.
maybe the original poster was a MASH fan?
I know he is a special ops. I wish he would come outta retirement in Boston.
I don’t. I wish he left with the Jabroni that hired him
Raquel Ferreira is a woman.
Wtf does that have to do with anything? Are you insinuating because she is a woman she can’t be a candidate? She probably has forgotten more about the sport and evaluating players than you ever knew.
I have and old Ferrari that I refer to as a “she.” I named her Raquel as well. My Raquel Ferrari is also a woman. That’s at least somewhat of coincidence in terms of this conversation, no?
Snowflake.
There’s nothing against Raquel. But they added her name to the list of candidates like she was another man. That’d be a huge change to hire a woman as a GM.
“ownership might be evaluating which of the four people currently running Boston’s baseball ops–Eddie Romero, Brian O’Halloran, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira”
Are you saying she doesn’t deserve to be a person? Because they were listing people, not ‘men’. If she’s then best person for the job, she gets it. She is no more or less a person than the other candidates, so should not me listed differently
Kim Ng had her chance and just wasn’t “clutch” enough in interviews to land a GM position, so maybe Ferreira will be the one.
How is that last name pronounced?
Brim-lee just like it looks….or maybe you meant Ng? Not absolutely sure but think it’s “Ing.”
Ng is pronounced “ing.”
Gender has nothing to do with whether we should promote her or not. Experience is what I’m hoping for! We already did our little experiment with hiring a total unqualified inexperienced manager and he blew up Spring Training, rolls the dice in the dugout to figure out the next pitcher and ensures the bench gets more playing time than on any other team because he was a bench jockey most of his career. NO I THINK WE NEED TO BE DONE WITH HIRING INEXPERIENCED PEOPLE!!
Is she experienced? No. Could she some day become an outstanding Head of Operations? Yes. She needs to work with someone who is outstanding at it and develop her skill set. Of the four running the show now, she is the only one I’d retain if I was a new GM/Head of Operations. Our analytics are bad compared to other teams with comparable payrolls. Our farm system gets lots of negative press because we graduated so many to our major league team but we could use a fresh face with experience running the farm system and our player development needs a serious look too.
We graduated Devers to the majors because our player development people said his defense was vastly improved and he was ready. Clearly, after setting an all time record for bad defense his first two years, I have to question their judgement. Yes, he’s an excellent hitter. Yes, after making 50 errors in 2 years he has slowed his errors to the point of being an acceptable evil at 3B but our player development people were simply wrong about his status when we brought him up. We need new people figuring out who is ready, who has potential and how to realize that potential.
Gender has no place in any of the decisions! I have just suggested firing 3 males and keeping the female. Why? Because I am an advocate of hiring minorities? No. I believe the most qualified person should get the job regardless of race, creed color, gender or sexual preference. That’s why I was offended by our decision to hire Cora. He wasn’t qualified and he’s proven it nearly every day he’s set foot in the dugout. What makes our choice worse is that he is a slow learner too. We desperately need a qualified, experienced GM/Head of Operations and that person needs to evaluate his inherited team and replace the weak links like Manager. If that happens, our team should be back in a World Series very soon!!
I have been reading MLBTR for a lonnnggg time and I must say, recently, every time I think “wow, that article was really well written”, it turns out to be written by Dylan A. Chase. Just wanted to say keep up the great work to you and everyone at MLBTR.
Agreed. The writing on here is bonafide legit.
That’s a very nice compliment—and cool of you to state it.
Absosulutey, Dylan is definitely their best pupil. They’ve always been great writers, sometimes some of the others get too excited with the thesaurus but other than that it’s great.
Absolutely**
I liked your original spelling! Gave the word some punch!
Makes more sense to turn over baseball ops to a co-gm tandem of my guess Romero and BOH!
The co-gm system worked briefly back after Theo walked out after 05 season, and then Cherington and Hoyer were named co-gms
During this time they traded Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins for Josh Beckett & Mike Lowell. They also traded Edgar Renteria to the Braves for a prospect who they then moved for Coco Crisp!
So if they do choose to go the co-gm route again, I expect them to be able continue to retool this team for 2020
That prospect they acquired from the Braves was a third basemen named Andy Marte. At the time he was the highest rated prospect in baseball and people in the media were certain he would win at least 1 MVP in his first 5 years in the league. I don’t really know why, but Marte never even really panned out as a legit major league player much less a MVP caliber star. I would love to know if anyone followed him after the Braves trade to find out why he flopped so hard so quickly. Sadly he died at a very early age in a car accident. That’s the tidbit of interesting modern baseball information I have to share for the day. Sorry it was so depressing but life can be that way sometimes. Can anybody tell me what happened to Andy Martes professional career before he passed away?
Andy Marte was discovered to have engaged in . . . Pharmaceutical training. The sudden power loss, coupled with incapacity to close the holes in his swing or fix 4-A level defense killed his career
Actually, it will be Greinke/Verlander, not the other way around.
Think the Astros should save the Greinke, Verlander, Cole trio for games 5,6 and 7. The worst that could happen is they lose 4 & 5 and have well-rested Verlander and Cole for 6 and 7 in Houston where they never lose.
I kind of agree. Who will pitch Game 7 for Houston if it goes to a Game 7? The bullpen? Maybe Greinke gets a very short leash or only goes a few innings tomorrow so he’s good and ready for a potential Game 7. Or they could do Game 5 as a bullpen game instead.
Actually Cole will go in game 7, if necessary.
Game 6 will need to be a bullpen game (for both teams, apparantly)
So if you come back to Houston down 2-3, you think they go to a pull pen day? That would be tragic!
You feel comfortable going with Cole in game 6, on 3 days rest? Then going with a bullpen day for game 7? Tragic as well.
Imo you have to use the bullpen for game 5. No other way around it.
IMHO after Verlanders less than stellar game 4 of the LDS, the Astros have decided not to start any pitchers on short rest unless it’s an elimination game.
Also, Verlander is on record as preferring regular rest over extra rest. I’m not sure about Grienke or Cole.
That said, it makes the most sense to pitch Verlander on regular rest in game 5.
Cole goes in game 7 because game 6 would be short rest.
If it’s an elimination game. Then all bets are off but the team will still need to win both the final games. One of them would need to be a bullpen game (although Urquidy has proven he can give 5+ innings )
Do they pitch Cole on short rest and then have an “all hands on deck” bullpen game 7
Or do they have a bullpen game 6 and then hope they can get to a game 7 where Cole will be fully rested and could likely give 7+ innings.
Why not turn it over to a committee of 4?
Have them all report to LaRussa to screen.
Then to John Henry for final approval.
LaRussa should have nothing to do with baseball decisions going forward. The game passed him by a decade ago.
LaRussa did more damage in Arizona in 3 years than anyone who could spend a lifetime messing it up could do. Great, Great MGR. No clue in the front office.
I lost respect for LaRussa when he pushed The committee on Baines. In my view there were numerous better choices and those on the committee should only preach the value of those that played for them but should then be recused from voting.
LaRussa did more harm in Arizona in 3 years than a preschooler could of done. HOF Mgr one of the best. No clue in a front office
I think if Houston wins game 4 then they go with bullpen game on Friday and let Verlander and Cole pitch games 6/7 at home on full rest.
There was a great article on over the monster that talked about the 3 ways for the Sox to get under the tax without and major shake ups. A few non tenders, trading Bradley and not having to trade betts. Made it look a lot easier than everyone makes it seem.
What I have found interesting about the ALCS is that so far in each game one team clearly needed the win more than the other.
Game 1 the Yankees did not want to go down 1-0 knowing they had Cole and Verlander going in the next two.
Game 2 the Astros couldn’t afford to go 0-2 at home.
Game 3 the Astros needed to get the win in Cole’s start since they didn’t want to be in a position of having to win one of the next two without either of their aces (obviously, weather changed this).
Yankees have to win tonight- if they go down 3-1, meaning they have to then sweep 3 in a row, 2 on the road, with two started by either Cole or Verlander, they are pretty much done.
If they win tonight and Verlander is held for game 6, then I’d say the Yankees would need to win game 5 much more than the Astros- you don’t want to go to Houston and have to win two in a row.
It all changes if Yanks win tonight and Verlander pitches game 5- then the game becomes must win for both teams, because you’d have to consider the winner of that game to be a pretty heavy favorite to win the series.
For that reason, if I’m the Astros, I hold Verlander for game 6. Worst case scenario then is you go home down 3-2 with your best pitchers lined up- I’d call that close to a 50/50 proposition, favoring Yankees slightly. Meanwhile, if you do win one of these next two, you are in a great spot.
Only advantage I see in pitching Verlander in game 5 is that he might then be available to give you an inning or two in game 7.
Nice analysis. My pure guess is that Greinke goes today because he will be sacrificed on the BP day on the 19th. Maybe Verland is too important to try to pitch an inning on two days rest.
A secondary consideration would be that, if Greinke pitches well, then the Astros are a huge favorite. If he pitches badly, and leaves after 4 innings, he’ll be well-rested for the BP game.
I’d guess if Greinke pitches poorly today, he’s done for this series. I guess if he’s bad and the Astros win anyway or the Astros win game 5 then maybe you risk throwing him on the bullpen day game 6, but I definitely don’t see them wanting to use him in a potential elimination game.
During the 2007-2008 off-season, DET went to a player acquisition by committee group. The resulting team won the preseason but came in last place during the regular season. Multiple decision makers never creates a good product (1984 Corvette)
“Sources say.” Reporters should be forced to cite an actual source. “Journalistic Integrity.” There’s no integrity in making things up just so you have a story.
“Blockbuster Trade: Giants Trade Important Reliever, Per John Heyman(? Whoever it was), Sources Say.” It was Drew Pomeranz, who was cheeks at the time.
It depends. In the off-season, I’d guess that maybe 75% of all possible trades, and 50% of all possible signings, are invented by the writers.
And the rest of the time, it is a quid pro quo between the team and the writer. The GM has no motivation to tell a writer they are negotiating with Cole, or that they are talking to LA about Betts.
IMO, there are only two times to talk to writers. The first is misinformation, like the Yankees telling writers they were interested in Lowell, to put a little more pressure on the RS.
The second is to provide ‘first reported’ info to guys that write more favorably about your team. This is likely news that will be reported in an hour, so maybe you give a heads-up to Heyman, and he’ll return the favor sometime later.
The thing is, I’d guess teams are talking all the time. So rumors can be reported that don’t have much of a factual basis.
Consider this scenario- Yankees call up Indians and say they’d like to trade Frazier for Kluber. Indians say no way. Conversation over. But a reporter could accurately state that the Yankees and Indians have discussed a Frazier-Kluber trade, and that the Yankees are still interested. It would also not be a reach to add in things like Indians would want more (even though they never countered, there is obviously a theoretical price that they would sell at), or that it appears Yankees are unwilling to include Gleyber Torres in the deal (not that anyone asked or even mentioned Torres), or that Yankees at this time have not yet offered to give up more in the deal (again, no one asked).
So, between these kinds of routine conversations that go nowhere and outright lies being floated by team employees, I’d guess reporters really don’t have to make up rumors.
Exactly. I’m sure that, even as their teams battle each other out, the FOs of both the Yanks and Astros are planning for 2020. With the shorter window playoff teams have now in the off season, they almost have to. The GM Meetings are like 2 weeks after the World Series; the Winter Meetings about a month. Lots of preparation, especially in these days of complicated contracts, lawyers and agents, is needed.
The days of “napkin trades” at the bar at night are long gone.
“The days of “napkin trades” at the bar at night are long gone.”
A little sad in a way. I applaud modern metrics, but I kind of miss the Wild West days.