After months of speculation, the Red Sox finally got their man in Blue Jays skipper John Farrell. Several names were floated about as potential bait for Toronto, but the Blue Jays wound up receiving shortstop Mike Aviles in the compensation deal. Here's a look at some of the reactions to the move..
- The loss of Aviles is not an insignificant one for the Red Sox, according to the Boston Globe's Pete Abraham. Aviles could have been a solid player off the bench next season, capable of backing up three infield positions and even playing some outfield, plus he was one of the most professional and accountable players on the team, setting an example for the young players, writes Abraham.
- In a separate article, Abraham says now the Red Sox have their manager, the real work starts for GM Ben Cherington, who must fill in the holes on the roster and hire a coaching staff.
- The Blue Jays were willing to let Farrell go in part because keeping him would have meant giving him a multi-year extension, and he hadn't earned that, writes Richard Griffin of the Toronto Star. The club wasn't eager to do that in part because of the team's lack of on-field discipline in the 2012 season.
- If Farrell is such a good manager, Scott Miller of CBSSports.com wonders why the Blue Jays would allow him to walk for relatively little. However, Miller spoke with one highly respected person close to the Blue Jays who insists that Toronto's struggles were not Farrell's fault and that he will develop into a very fine manager one day.
- There are suggestions that first base coach Torey Lovullo, third base coach Brian Butterfield, and extra coach Luis Rivera may now follow Farrell to the Red Sox, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. GM Alex Anthopoulos confirmed all coaches are "free to talk" with other organizations because none of them are under contract beyond this season, tweets MLB.com's Gregor Chisholm.
- The Red Sox deserve credit for being decisive and moving quickly to grab the manager that they wanted all along, writes Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Boston's sacrifice of Aviles also seems especially mild given that the Blue Jays supposedly asked for Clay Buchholz in return for Farrell last winter.
- Toronto was furious with what they perceived to be tampering on the part of Boston, but they were wise to move past it, tweets Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Olney adds that Torey Lovullo is likely to be a prominent candidate for the Jays' managerial job as he is highly regarded in the organization.
- With a new manager in place, General Manager Ben Cherington's neck is now on the line, opines Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.
- The Blue Jays would do well to turn around and hire Brad Ausmus, opines Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). The Red Sox hiring team indicated to Cafardo that Ausmus was very impressive during the process.
- Rules mandate that both teams receive a player in such a deal, but whoever the Sox get from the Blue Jays is expected to be marginal, writes Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com.
- In getting Aviles as compensation, the Blue Jays seemingly followed the Lou Pinella-Randy Winn precedent from 2002, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
- Look for Lovullo to join Farrell in Boston as the team's new bench coach according to an industry source, tweets Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.
- The reaction by current Red Sox players to Sunday's managerial hiring has been been completely different than how the team responded to Bobby Valentine's arrival in Boston last fall, tweets Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe.
Edward Creech and Daniel Seco contributed to this post.
