MLB Notebook: Yankees leapfrog over Sox; what's next for Farrell; and more

As if the Red Sox second-straight early elimination from the post-season and their firing of manager John Farrell wasn’t evidence enough of an organization with a lot of work to do, there’s also this: while the Red Sox scramble to right things, their arch-rival New York Yankees are just four wins away from the World Series.

This was not supposed to happen.

Only a year ago, the Red Sox had won the American League East while the Yankees missed out on the post-season for the third time in the last four seasons and were motivated to engineer a sell-off that resulted in them dealing away not one but two relief aces, each of whom later helped carry their new teams to the seventh game of the World Series.

The Sox had a young core of maturing major league players, while the Yankees were in rebuild mode.

Or so it seemed.

Flash forward a year later, and the Yankees are in the ALCS and the Sox are in turmoil.

This season was supposed to be one in which the Yanks made some strides, weathered some growing pains with their young players and got themselves closer to the big free agent class of 2018 which will feature, among others, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper.

Instead, the Yankees timeline sped up considerably. Aaron Judge went from a promising outfielder with power but sizeable holes in his swing to a 52-homer sensation in his first full season. Gary Sanchez, defensive struggles aside, showed that his final two months in 2016 were no fluke, developing into a fearsome middle-of-the-lineup bat to pair with Judge.

On and on it went, with Luis Severino taking huge strides after a major step backward a year ago.

Huge credit must go to GM Brian Cashman, who accomplished the seemingly impossible task of selling off at the deadline 15 months ago, to building an ALCS entrant a year later. It should be noted, even in the years in which the Yankees missed out on the post-season, they never hit rock bottom the way the Red Sox did in both 2014 and 2015.

The Yankees intend to stay under the CBT (competitive balance tax) in 2018, which could restrict the moves they make this off-season. But then again, they don’t have the kind of dead weight that threatens to capsize the Red Sox payroll, with money being paid to Pablo Sandoval (to be elsewhere) and Rusney Castillo (to be in Pawtucket) totaling almost $30 million.

You could argue that the Red Sox own the better starting rotation going forward, assuming a return to form for David Price and given that CC Sabathia is heading for free agency while Masahiro Tanaka has the ability to opt-out of his deal.

But otherwise, the Yankees are well-situated at the major league level. And their biggest current advantage over the Red Sox lies in their minor league system, which was re-stocked after the club dealt off Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman and only slightly thinned after the deals for Sonny Gray and the blockbuster with the White Sox which landed them bullpen mainstays David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle.

Cashman has also traded shrewdly, especially with some under-the-radar swaps. He obtained shortstop Didi Gregorius from Arizona for Shane Greene (in a deal that, ironically, involved Dave Dombrowski, since it was a three-team deal involving the Tigers) and obtained power reliever Chad Green (also from Detroit) for Justin Wilson.

Two years ago, the Red Sox had one of the top three farm systems in the game, while the Yankees were consistently in the bottom 10. Now, after deals for Craig Kimbrel, Tyler Thornburg and Chris Sale, the Red Sox have dropped to the bottom half in the estimation of many.

From Theo Epstein’s time with the Red Sox, the mantra from the Boston front office has been that the Sox don’t react to what their rivals do, preferring to focus on their goals. That shouldn’t change now.

But the events of the last few weeks, if nothing else, illustrated that although the Red Sox finished two games in front of the Yankees, the Sox are the ones with the catching up to do.
*******

Where does Farrell, fired Wednesday, go next?

It would seem that there is no shortage of options. While fan reaction to his tenure in Boston was hardly positive by the end, winning three division titles and a World Series in a five-year span shouldn’t be dismissed – and likely won’t – from those viewing his tenure from afar.

Up close, watching a manager virtually every day over the course of five seasons, it’s easy to have your perceptions distorted.  That won’t be the takeaway from executives in other markets.

If Farrell doesn’t manager again right away – and he may follow in the footsteps of good friend Terry Francona, who thought it best to take a year and decompress some from the Boston pressure cooker – he could find a job either as a pitching coach, or, on another professional track, in player development.

Remember, Farrell was on the latter path with the Cleveland Indians when he changed direction and agreed to become Francona’s pitching coach in 2007.

It would surprise absolutely no one if Farrell went back to work for the Toronto Blue Jays in some capacity. Team president Mark Shapiro hired him in Cleveland, Ben Cherington hired him to manage in Boston, and current GM Ross Atkins was hired by Farrell with the Indians.

Yes, Farrell left the Blue Jays under strained circumstances to take the Red Sox’ job after the 2012 season, but management has completely turned over since then. And recall that this is the same organization that hired John Gibbons for the same job (manager) five seasons after firing him from the same position.

A reunion with Francona in Cleveland, where Farrell also has a relationship with Chris Antonetti, the former GM since elevated to team president, also cannot be ruled out.

********

In the aftermath of Farrell’s dismissal, there’s been a great deal of emphasis placed on the importance of media savvy for the next Red Sox manager, and indeed, the media demands and responsibilities for the position far exceed, say, those in Pittsburgh or Milwaukee.

In Boston, there’s a daily pre-game media availability that is housed in an interview room (at home, at least) that can last anywhere from 10-20 minutes, depending on the news of the day. The same is true post-game, when the manager meets with the media to answer questions about the just-completed game.

There’s also a taped interview done daily for the radio flagship’s pre-game show, a mandated weekly appearance on the set of NESN, and a weekly in-studio radio appearance, conducted in an outfield studio when the team is home, and by phone when the team is on the road.

Finally, there are pre-game meetings with the play-by-play announcer, color analyst and producer any time the Sox are part of a national telecast (on ESPN, Fox or TBS).

But as demanding – and time-consuming – as those responsibilities are, there’s another element to the job which has changed drastically over the years: the close relationship with the GM.

Thirty years ago, there was a virtual wall between the manager and GM, even if the former’s job security was determined by the latter. When Lou Gorman was GM of the Red Sox, he didn’t enter the clubhouse a half-dozen times over the course of a long season. There was the sense that the clubhouse was the players’ domain, and by extension, the manager’s.

That was a line which front office executives didn’t want to cross.

It was a GM’s job to provide the players on the roster, and the manager’s job to put together the appropriate lineup and formulate strategy. The notion that a GM might provide input on a batting order or suggest lineup alterations would have been unthinkable. One didn’t cross over to the other.

Now, that line is erased. There’s daily communication between the manager and GM, with exchanges of ideas on lineup construction, injury updates, roster moves, pitching plans and other daily items of interest.

Moreover, there is an avalanche of data provided by the Baseball Operations department as it pertains to defensive shifts, potential matchups, spray charts, and a thousand other bits of information that are now part and parcel of every team’s daily accumulation of information.

With Dombrowski, that contact is increased as he travels with the team on the road, too, something almost no other current-day GM does. Most general managers are content to be home while the team is away, monitoring from afar and watching games on TV. Dombrowski, meanwhile, finds it valuable to be around the team on the road, explaining that it helps him get a better feel for personnel and how they’re performing.

(It’s been suggested that this practice proved suffocating for Farrell, who may have felt like he was being excessively monitored, with Dombrowski on the road and a near-constant presence).

All of which is to emphasize the need for a workable relationship between the GM and manager, and a degree of comfort between the two. The duo needs to communicate, establish a trust and share a similar philosophy, as well as being able to disagree on issues without compromising the relationship.

To some, that very point is a reason to establish Brad Ausmus as the odds-on favorite as the next Red Sox manager. He and Dombrowski have already worked together for two and a half seasons in Detroit, which would eliminate any need for the pair to go through an initial orientation program. Ausmus could come to Boston and know that he could hit the ground running insofar as his relationship with his boss.

That doesn’t guarantee that Ausmus will get the job, since Dombrowski could find a kinship with another candidate in what will surely be a thorough interview process. But it does give Ausmus a significant leg up as the search gets underway.