Monday, December 11, 2017

Why Did the Red Sox Fire John Farrell?

It seems to me that many Red Sox fans have forgotten their answer to that question. Or, they've decided to change their minds all of a sudden.

I was told that the Sox needed to get rid of Farrell because he was costing them wins. He wasn't getting everything he could out of the players he had. Without him holding them back, the Sox would have won even more games than they did.

Because, that's the only reason you'd fire a manager coming off back-to-back division titles, right? Because you could do even better with the next guy?

Then, they got the next guy. Alex Cora was their top target. He's the guy who can form this group of talent into a real team. He's going to get the Sox over the hump. 93 wins and a division championship is the floor when it comes to expectations. 

Not only that, but the Sox expect to be a better team. With any luck David Price will be David Price again. They're looking at  way to add a little power to the line-up. Even just having Devers at third for an entire season would look to be a significant upgrade. 

So, replacing Farrell along with overall improvement makes the Sox much better than last year, right? Otherwise, why did the Sox do it? 

So why do I care if the Yankees signed Giancarlo Stanton? The Yankees already led the league in home runs last season. They didn't win the division. Sure, they made their team better. Maybe a handful of wins better. Which is good for them, since they had to make up that many games compared to the Red Sox in order to catch up. 

So, it makes the race tighter. Assuming everything works out for the Yankees. Assuming Aaron Judge repeats his 2017 performance, even though there's no reason to believe he will. Assuming Stanton still produces when he's not on a last place team. And, yes, I would have preferred a cake walk. But this news is no reason to cry in your cereal or demand the Red Sox make ridiculous moves. The Yankees needed to come and get them, and they gave it their best shot.

Frankly, Red Sox fans should be thrilled that the Yankees traded for Stanton. They overpaid for a player they didn't need because they were so desperate to close the gap between you and them. The defending division champs improved, and they had to do something to try and respond. So, they made the big splash. The problem for them is that they may be done. So, when the Sox add JD Martinez, or even Eric Hosmer, the gap widens again. 

Then what are the Yankees going to do?

2 comments:

  1. Ask Jeter for more help?? He seems pretty willing to help his old team out whenever he can. If I were a Miami fan, I'd question whose best interests he cares about most.

    ReplyDelete

What people are reading this week