Red Sox Not Holding a Formal Press Conference for Dave Dombrowski's Firing is Pretty Classless
By Thomas Carannante
Goodbye Dave! Thanks for...the World Series?
Out of nowhere, the Boston Red Sox fired President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski after their loss to the New York Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball less than a year following their World Series victory.
The Sox are nine games over .500, and while they're disappointing, they're merely out of the playoff picture due to the Yankees' absolute dominance and the surging Indians, Athletics and Rays. Sometimes it happens and you get unlucky, but the Sox apparently deemed it as unacceptable.
Not only did they fire Dombrowski, but they aren't even holding a press conference for the news.
The #RedSox are not expected to hold a formal press conference today regarding the dismissal of Dave Dombrowski as their president of baseball operations. @MLBNetwork @MLB
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) September 9, 2019
The firing was already bad, and this sends an even worse message to the rest of those in the organization right now.
Dombrowski, while he bizarrely made no offseason moves to improve the team's putrid bullpen, had been instrumental in constructing the 2018 World Series team. He acquired Craig Kimbrel via trade and signed David Price in 2016; traded for Chris Sale in 2017; signed JD Martinez in 2018; and then added World Series MVP Steve Pearce at the deadline last year.
Also, the bullpen, contrary to popular belief, hasn't been the chief issue with the Sox in 2019. Their lineup just simply isn't as potent -- and by potent we mean Mookie Betts and JD Martinez aren't homering off the first pitch in every at-bat anymore -- and the starting rotation took a nosedive largely for reasons unknown (outside of Sale's injury).
Multiple times, Dave Dombrowski asked for an extension and was rebuffed. What went wrong with the Red Sox front office: https://t.co/jNAe6e3qNN
— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) September 9, 2019
Sure, giving Sale a premature $145 million extension could perhaps be viewed as a mistake, but he got Martinez on a favorable deal, signed Xander Bogaerts to a shrewd contract extension, and, at the time, made a solid move to keep Nathan Eovaldi in Boston (though his elbow issues have destroyed his 2019 season).
But, so goes the cycle in Boston. Win a World Series. Express resentment after missing the playoffs the season after. Rebuild for a couple years. Then win it all again.
Can't say this isn't blueprint Red Sox.