The timing could not be more beneficial to Sox, especially since Dombrowski intends to go right to work as soon as he is officially announced as the team’s first president of baseball operations. The team said in a news release during its game against the Cleveland Indians that Cherington “declined the opportunity to continue as general manager, but has agreed to assist Mr. Dombrowski during the transition”. Travis Shaw went 4 for 4 and Brock Holt had three hits and two RBI for the Red Sox, who knocked around five Indians pitchers for 16 hits.
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Dave Dombrowski always had it pretty good in his 14 years in Detroit, and he used that good situation to provide the Tigers’ owner and fans with the longest sustained period of success in the franchise’s history.
– Dombrowski was known as an aggressive GM, and it came back to bite him during the 1989 season.
Dombrowski expressed his eagerness to begin working with the Red Sox.
“We were just talking and I was asking questions, the normal questions, and he mentioned he was going to start Tuesday”, Francona said Monday before the Indians opened a three-game series at Boston. He was gone with two outs in the second inning as the Red Sox strolled to a 9-1 victory over the Indians.
The 41-year-old Cherington, a New England native, had been with the Red Sox in a variety of capacities since 1999. Ben Cherington, Boston’s general manager, stepped down following the announcement. There are a few obvious names, which means next to nothing given that the Dombrowski hire itself came mostly out of nowhere and his presence is a wild card.
The timing of Dombrowski’s hiring – the Red Sox have 43 games remaining in their season and are on pace for a last-place finish – affords him plenty of time to evaluate Boston’s roster and staff without rushing into any final decisions.
Cherington, a longtime member of the Red Sox baseball operations staff, built an instant World Series champion in 2013, his second year on the job. “As owners, we are ultimately responsible for the poor results we’ve had over the last two years and results going forward”.
The 59-year-old Dombrowski was instrumental in putting together the Marlins’ 1997 World Series championship team and also contributed to the organization’s title in 2003.
Will Dombrowski turn the Red Sox into contenders in 2016? He has been with the Red Sox since 1999. That might sting, but Dombrowski also has a reputation as an excellent talent evaluator, knowing which guys are expendable and which are worth holding onto. I think we all know that.
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“I felt strongly that what was best for Dave, what was best for me, what was best for the Red Sox was the same thing, and that was a clean break”, he said.
