BOSTON — The Red Sox’s hiring of Dave Dombrowski triggered the end of the Ben Cherington era in Boston, and Dombrowski said Wednesday he plans to hire a new general manager to take over Cherington’s role.
Dombrowski, Red Sox principal owner John Farrell and chairman Tom Werner all expressed disappointment that Cherington declined to remain with the team but noted that his decision was made in the best interest of all parties involved.
“Originally, I was hopefully that Ben would stay,” Dombrowski, whose hiring was announced Tuesday night, said at his introductory news conference at Fenway Park. “I talked to Ben (on Tuesday), and that was part of the thought process. I understand why he came to the decision that he did, but I have an utmost respect for him, and he’s left a lot of good parts to the organization, and he’s going to help with the transition here. But I do plan on hiring a general manager. I think the job is a very large job as far as responsibilities are concerned — there’s a lot of work to be done.”
Dombrowski, who last worked as GM of the Detroit Tigers, said as president of baseball operations, he will have the final say “when it comes to trades or player personnel aspects.” He did not identify any potential candidates for the GM vacancy (“I really don’t have a specific, ‘This is the leading candidate for our general manager’ at this time.”) but said he is not planning a full front-office overhaul.
“I think it’s important to know — and I’m going to talk to a couple of people in the front office very quickly on the baseball end of it — is that I’m not here to blow up the operation,” Dombrowski said. “There are a lot of good people here; they have good reputations. When I originally went to Detroit, we kept, I think, everybody there at the time and evaluated them over a time period. And so, it’s a situation where I look to hopefully enhance what we have, work together closely, and then if we can add people (to) the organization from wherever it may be, we’re open-minded to that. But I hope that most of the people here will be in position to stay and be able to help.”
The timing of Dombrowski’s hiring — the Red Sox have 43 games remaining in their season and are on pace for a last-place finish — affords him plenty of time to evaluate Boston’s roster and staff without rushing into any final decisions.
“I talked to a couple of the guys in the front office (Wednesday),” Dombrowski said. “I don’t know the front office people real well here at this point, more just in stopping through and visiting with them. When we go to meetings, we will get to know each other a lot more over the next time period.
“But I think one thing that’s important and makes an organization good and baseball operations, which is my responsibility, is that you’re going to have disagreements about responsibilities, and you’re going to have disagreements about players and trades. And it’s very important that they’re expressed. We’ve always done that in the past, and we’ll continue to do that here. But I’ll take some time — I’m not going to rush into that type of decision — and make sure we make the appropriate decision at the time.”
Thumbnail photo via Twitter/@MLB
