After making call to fire Farrell, these are Dombrowski's Red Sox - now more than ever

The firing of John Farrell is a watershed moment for the Red Sox as a franchise: it signals a complete break from a line of figures who had run the organization – both in the dugout and in the front office – dating all the way back to 2003.

In the dugout, notwithstanding the one year of Bobby Valentine Clown Time, the team was managed by either Terry Francona or Farrell for 13 of the last 14 seasons.

Theo Epstein brought in Francona, who brought in Farrell (as pitching coach). Epstein also brought in Ben Cherington, who brought back Farrell after the latter had gone to Toronto. Mike Hazen, who had the GM position in name if not in actual power, was also an Epstein acolyte.

Now, they’re all gone. The Red Sox are, for good or ill, officially now Dave Dombrowski’s team.

It was Dombrowski’s call to fire Farrell Wednesday and it will be his call to choose his replacement. Some input will be contributed by both principal owner John Henry and CEO/President Sam Kennedy, but ultimately, the next manager will be selected by Dombrowski.

Dombrowski was strangely circumspect in Wednesday’s press conference to announce Farrell’s dismissal. He repeatedly avoided specifics and declined to get into details as to his reasoning for recommending the move.

A source familiar with Dombrowski’s thinking, however, suggested that Farrell was being evaluated for the entirety of his tenure since Dombrowski arrived, and not, as some perceived, on the team’s second straight early exit from the post-season.

Farrell’s abilities – or deficiencies – as an in-game manager may not have proved as big a factor as some supposed.

The same source indicated Dombrowski was unhappy with some of the clubhouse dynamics, and, in particular, the incident with the Baltimore Orioles early in the season.

Dombrowski loudly confronted Farrell over his handling of the team’s comportment after Manny Macahdo’s takeout slide – from the sloppiness and ineptitude of the on-field response, and Dustin Pedroia’s on-camera message (“It’s not me; it’s them’’) — didn’t speak well for team unity.

Farrell was further cast in a negative light by the David Price-Dennis Eckersley incident where the manager seemed uncomfortably caught in between a petulant player’s overreaction to Eckersley’s color analysis, and the knowledge that Price’s voice carries significant weight in the clubhouse — especially with others on the pitching staff. Farrell understood that publicly calling Price out for his behavior could jeopardize the manager’s own standing in the clubhouse.

One baseball source suggested that while Henry had long been a backer of Farrell’s, that support began to waver this season as the team underperformed for stretches, and Henry, who is intensely driven by analytics, began to join the chorus of those who found fault with Farrell’s tactical moves.

Recently, Henry scoffed when someone suggested that the team’s dismal performance in the first two games in Houston in the ALDS was not something that could be blamed on Farrell. In retrospect, losing Henry’s confidence may have been the most obvious signal that his days were numbered.

Personal feelings aside, ultimately both Henry and Kennedy came to decide that if Dombrowski wanted to make a change, his request had to be honored. Dombrowski was given the title of president of baseball operations, and accordingly, had to be allowed to make decisions such as this. To do otherwise would be tantamount to undercutting their chief baseball executive.

As to where Dombrowski and the Red Sox go from here, that remains an open question. To some, former Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus – whom Dombrowski hired to replace Jim Leyland – is the clear front-runner.

But despite his deep ties to the area – Ausmus is a Connecticut native who attended Dartmouth and owns a house on the Cape – there is a belief that he could benefit from a year off before returning to manage. Ausmus may be in demand elsewhere, too, with one prominent member of the New York Mets’ hierarchy advocating intensely for him.

The current coaching staff is under contract through 2018 but will be given permission to seek jobs elsewhere, given their uncertain future. Of those on the staff, bench coach Gary DiSarcina has managerial aspirations, but some inside the organization wonder if he has developed enough of a presence.

Despite Dombrowski’s stated preference for someone with previous managerial experience, Jason Varitek may receive some consideration. But Varitek has never been comfortable in the media spotlight – a significant part of any major league managerial job these days, and especially so in Boston – and it’s unclear whether he’s ready to be away from a young and growing family.

On one hand, Alex Cora makes a great deal of sense. He played for the Sox for parts of four seasons, has served as a GM for a winter ball team in his native Puerto Rico, is an excellent communicator (having worked for ESPN) and is, of course, bilingual, no small attribute given the number of young Latino stars on the Red Sox roster and in their developmental system.

But Cora has no direct link to Dombrowski. That isn’t to eliminate him as a candidate, but he would stand a far better chance of being offered the job if someone from the Epstein-Cherington-Hazen group was making the call.
And that further highlights how central Dombrowski is to this process.

“As long as Farrell is around,’’ said an executive with another team back in September, “Dombrowski has a buffer. When things go wrong, he can always blame the manager he didn’t hire.’’

That buffer is now removed. If the new manager doesn’t work out, that will be on Dombrowski and no one else.

The power to fire is an important tool for any executive.  Dombrowski took advantage of that Wednesday with his desire to make a change.

But the power to hire brings with it responsibility. If Dombrowski gets this wrong, it will be his job – and no one else’s – on the line.