BOSTON — The Red Sox’s front office experienced a seismic shakeup Tuesday night, with Dave Dombrowski taking over as president of baseball operations and Ben Cherington declining to continue in his role as general manager.
Dombrowski most recently served as GM of the Detroit Tigers, and one of the major moves the team made during his final year involved trading right-hander Rick Porcello to the Red Sox in December for outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, whom he later dealt to the New York Mets at this year’s trade deadline.
Porcello naturally was approached for comment after news of the hiring broke, but he declined to give one beyond saying he enjoyed his six-year tenure with the Tigers.
“I really don’t have any comment right now,” he said after Boston defeated the Cleveland Indians 9-1 at Fenway Park. “This news just kind of broke to us, so I kind of need a day to digest everything and go from there. But I will say that I had a great time playing for Dave in Detroit, and I’m looking forward to that opportunity again.
“We just got done with a baseball game, so I think everybody kind of needs to just digest everything, and come in tomorrow and go from there.”
Fellow Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz added that Porcello had relayed to him a positive review of Dombrowski.
“(Porcello) knows him,” Buchholz said. “That’s the only person that I know that really knows him, and he says that (Dombrowski) is good at what he does. He’s a business guy, but it’s just one of those things where it is what it is. He had nothing but good things to say about him, and that’s (coming from) a guy that was traded away from the team that (Dombrowski)Â was the general manager of. So, if you can still have that kind of impact on somebody in that way, then that person thinks pretty highly of you.”
Dombrowski spent 12 full seasons as GM of the Tigers, assuming the role six games into the 2002 campaign and keeping it until he was fired earlier this month. During that span, Detroit reached the World Series twice, lost in the American League Championship another two times and finished first in the AL Central in each of the last four seasons.
Thumbnail photo via Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports Images
