The Boston Red Sox could look different in 2020, but could the overhaul start at the top?
Boston’s playoff chances seemingly are waning by the day — especially with Chris Sale likely gone for the rest of the season — and if the Sox aren’t able to make a miracle push for the postseason, it stands to reason there could be plenty of change when the club takes the field next season.
Some have even wondered whether a new voice may be calling the shots, and apparently president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is aware of the notion his job security could be wavering. Or, at the very least, he hears the noise emanating from outside Jersey Street.
“Well, I don’t want to say too much about it, but I am surprised. At least a little bit,” he told USA TODAY. “I mean, we did win three divisions and a World Series.”
It is hard to argue with those successes. Whether Dombrowski will get the chance to prove he can rebuild a depleted farm system as the Red Sox enter their next era remains to be seen, though. And without strong assurances that will be the case, Dombrowski understands there will be speculation.
“But I get it. This is a tough market,” he added. “It’s been known as that. Growing up in this game, I was always told there are three markets that are different than everywhere else: Boston, New York and Philadelphia. And I’d have to say it’s probably lived up to be true.
“If you don’t have thick skin, you’re not going to survive in this game. You won’t survive in this market for sure.”
Dombrowski also defended the contract extension for Sale as well as re-signing postseason heroes Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce in the offseason. As for whether the Sox could have done more in the offseason to augment the club returning to defend its championship, Dombrowski admitted they could have gone different directions to bring in some players who might be “hungry to win.”
“I don’t know the answer, but I do think that in the general form of organizational perspective is that after you win — and (Patriots coach) Bill Belichick was great telling me this — you think things are going to be OK,” he explained. “You see things that maybe catch your eye in the spring, and then it’s like, ‘Yeah, but we’ll be OK. We’ll get through that.’
“You talk to Belichick, and he doesn’t act that way. He never refers to last year. He talks about this year right now, and that’s it. Once you win, you don’t think it’s going to translate into any type of attitude (problems) into the next year, but maybe it does.”
Dombrowski and the rest of the Red Sox world will now wait and see as to whether he’ll be the one making those same calls this winter when the tone figures to be much different than a year ago, regardless of who’s in charge.
