BOSTON — The Red Sox routed the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday at Fenway Park, but the game itself was far from the night’s top story.
The real news broke less than an hour before Boston’s 9-1 win went final: The Red Sox had hired former Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski as their new president of baseball operations. Current GM Ben Cherington will assist with the transition but has declined to remain in his position.
The timing of the announcement meant rather than fielding questions about Eduardo Rodriguez’s gem of a pitching performance or Travis Shaw’s four-hit night, Red Sox players were asked for their takes on the front-office shakeup.
“I know that wherever he’s been, he’s won,” second baseman Dustin Pedroia said of Dombrowski, who presided over two American League pennant-winners in Detroit and a Florida Marlins squad that won the 1997 World Series.
“Obviously, that speaks for itself. I remember (former Red Sox third baseman) Mike Lowell used to talk about him and couldn’t say enough great things. So, obviously, I don’t think they would put somebody in that position that they don’t believe in. I mean, he’s pretty special at what he does. He’s done a great job for the longest of time.”
Winning is something the Red Sox did not do much of during Cherington’s tenure — with the 2013 World Series championship being the obvious exception. Boston finished last in the American League East both in 2012 — Cherington’s first season — and in 2014, and as of Tuesday night the club sits in that same position this season, trailing the first-place New York Yankees by 13 1/2 games.
But while many of Cherington’s high-profile moves failed to pan out, both Pedroia and right-hander Clay Buchholz insisted the players are those most to blame for the team’s struggles.
“It’s on us,” Pedroia said. “(Team executives) don’t play. That’s frustrating. But we win as a team and we lose as a team. That’s the tough part: It doesn’t usually go down like that in the end. But that’s how we all feel. We’re out there playing.”
“I’ve known Ben my whole career since I got drafted (in 2005),” Buchholz added. “(Cherington) was the minor league coordinator at the time. I guess it’s along the lines of a player if you’re in this organization — if you don’t fulfill your role for an extended period of time, they find somebody else that will. I don’t think Ben, honestly, never had a hand in the way we played or the level that we played at or if we didn’t do good enough. Obviously, you’d have to be stupid not to understand that it wasn’t his fault. It’s the players in here.
“Little bit of a shock, I guess, that it happened tonight. As long as I’ve been here, the Red Sox, we have a meeting in spring training every year, and the ownership comes in and says that they built teams to win baseball games and win championships. And obviously, when it’s going like it is or has gone this year, they felt like there needed to be a change. And that’s what they went with.”
Thumbnail photo via David Manning/USA TODAY Sports Images
