Is Dave Dombrowski Stupid?

No. No, he’s not.

At least I certainly assume he’s not. He’s been around too long to be stupid.

So, when he came to the Red Sox at the end of last season, I assume he knew what he was doing. He was watching the games. He was talking to scouts. He was talking to others within the organization. Where he saw holes, he filled them during the off-season. Where he saw excess, he dealt from it. He built a complete team ready to take the field on Opening Day.

So, I can only imagine he’s pissed that John Farrell is screwing it all up.

One of the things that Dombrowski felt the team needed was a fourth outfielder. So, he went out and got Chris Young. Told him he’d be starting against lefties. The move made perfect sense. It made for a complete team. You had the Castillo-Bradley-Betts starting outfield, with Young there as a back-up. 

That outfield was available because Hanley Ramirez was moving to the infield to take over first base. That allowed Pedroia, Bogaerts, and Sandoval to fill out the rest of the diamond. He even made sure he had back-ups at the ready. Travis Shaw was able to use his elevated September numbers to secure the back-up corner infielder job. Brock Holt would be the back-up middle infielder, and all around utility guy. So, Shaw would spell Panda every once in a while, and Hanley every once in a while. Holt would give Pedroia and Xander a rest when needed. He could also help out in the outfield if there was a reason to rest or replace two starters in one game. It was all aligned the way you’d want a team to be aligned.

Then Farrell decided to save himself.

Farrell decided that Castillio’s not an all-star at the plate quite yet. But, he can’t wait. So, what does he do? He takes his back-up middle infielder and all-around utility guy, and makes him his starting left fielder. Then he decides, for whatever reason, that he doesn’t like Sandoval. He, in this lone instance, decides that the statistics from last September are the most important and makes his back-up middle infielder the starting third baseman. These two moves cripple the bench. Now he’s without a back-up middle infielder, since Castillo is an outfielder. He also has a third baseman on his bench that doesn’t play first.

Then, he has the nerve to go on the radio and agree that the roster is constructed oddly, in that it doesn’t have a back-up middle infielder.

I wonder if Dombrowski called Farrell into his office after that to yell, ‘You have one! You’re starting him in left field, you fool!!”

So, I wonder if the moves the Sox made yesterday, sending down Castillo and DLing Panda, are Dombrowski’s way of giving Farrell just enough rope. Here you go John. You don’t want to start the right players? I’m going to take them away from you. Then, I’m going to let them go to the minors. Let’s see how everyone feels when Shaw’s hitting .270, but Panda’s hitting .310 in AAA. You better hope you win, because you only have until May Day.

Because, no, Dombrowski’s not stupid.