A new day has dawned for Boston Red Sox baseball.
The Red Sox announced Tuesday the hiring of veteran baseball executive Dave Dombrowski, who took over as the team’s president of baseball operations.
Dombrowski joining the fray spelled the end for Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington, who, per the team, will assist in the transition but won’t continue in his role as GM. Cherington had held that position since before the 2012 season and had been a member of the Red Sox front office since 1999.
The 59-year-old Dombrowski officially will be introduced at a news conference scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday at Fenway Park. In the meantime, let’s take a look back at some of his previous accomplishments.
The Expos Years
Dombrowski became the youngest GM in major league history at age 31 when the Montreal Expos promoted him to the position midway through the 1988 season. That mark since has been broken several times, including by Theo Epstein, whose tenure as Red Sox GM began when he was 28.
The Expos posted .493 winning percentage under Dombrowski, who served as GM for two full seasons and parts of two others. During that time, he drafted Cliff Floyd and traded for eventual six-time All-Star Moises Alou, who later would have a massive impact at Dombrowski’s second stop. Which brings us to …
The Move to Miami
The expansion Florida Marlins — whom current Red Sox principal owner John Henry purchased in 1999 — hired Dombrowski in 1991 to be their first GM. The Marlins debuted in 1993, and under Dombrowski’s tutelage, they won the 1997 World Series in just their fifth year of existence.
Big-name free-agent signings help shape that ’97 squad, with pitchers Al Leiter and Kevin Brown inking deals in 1995 and outfielders Alou and Bobby Bonilla coming aboard in 1997. Alou led the team both in home runs and RBIs in his lone season in Florida.
Dombrowski also signed two future All-Stars in 1996 — international free agents Edgar Renteria and Livan Hernandez. Hernandez was named World Series MVP, while Renteria provided the series-clinching hit.
He also in 1993 swung a trade that gave the San Diego Padres their closer for years to come (Trevor Hoffman) but brought to Florida eventual nine-time All-Star and five-time Silver Slugger Gary Sheffield, who went on to spend six highly productive seasons with the Marlins.
Florida floundered near the bottom of the National League East for the remainder of Dombrowski’s tenure, however, and in 2001, he left to join another major league bottom-feeder: the Detroit Tigers.
The Tiger Turnaround
The Tigers were a bad, bad baseball team when Dombrowski took over, and in his first two seasons, they remained one. Detroit lost 100 games in 2002 and an American League-record 119 contests in 2003.
But just three years later, the Tigers were playing for a World Series, and by 2011, they were an AL powerhouse, winning another AL pennant and reaching the ALCS twice more between 2011 and 2013.
The list of moves Dombrowski made to engineer this turnaround is far too lengthy to fit in one article, but here are a few of his highlights:
2004: Signed future Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez and swung a trade for underrated infielder Carlos Guillen, who proceeded to earn three All-Star nods in six years after receiving zero in his first five full seasons. Also drafted a guy named Justin Verlander, who’d spent upward of a half-decade as Detroit’s ace.
2005: Signed outfielder Magglio Ordonez and brought in Jim Leyland, who managed Florida to the ’97 title.
2007: Acquired future AL MVP Miguel Cabrera from the Marlins for a package of six prospects. Of those six, only current New York Yankees closer Andrew Miller has enjoyed significant major league success.
2009: Acquired the other half of Detroit’s two-headed pitching monster, Max Scherzer, from the Arizona Diamondbacks. Gave up Curtis Granderson in the deal, but also landed Austin Jackson, who finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting the following season.
Despite their remarkable turnaround, the Tigers have been on the downslide since losing to the Red Sox in the 2013 ALCS. Last season ended with an AL Central crown but a first-round playoff exit, David Price and Yoenis Cespedes were traded away less than a year after they were acquired, and with Detroit sitting below .500 as the calendar flipped to August, Dombrowski was fired.
Now, he’s on to a new challenge: leading the Red Sox back to the promised land.
Thumbnail photo via Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports Images
