McAdam: Assessing Dave Dombrowski's legacy with the Red Sox

Dave Dombrowski served as the Red Sox' President of Baseball Operations for just over four years. In that span, the Red Sox' championship last October stands as the pinnacle of his achievements while on the job.

In 2018, a franchise with more than a century of history set a club record for most regular-season wins, that easily outclassed the competition in the postseason going 11-3. They never trailed in any of their three postseason series and were tied (1-1 with the Yankees in the ALDS) only once.

But his time spent in Boston is more complicated than wins and losses.

Here's a look at the good and the bad associated with Dombrowski's tenure:

THE GOOD

1. Three consecutive first-place finishes, culminating in a 108-win season and a world championship.

It may be easy to forget, but when Dombrowski was hired, the franchise was headed for its third last-place finish in four years with, oddly, a World Series win mixed in the middle.

There was a revolving door on the manager's office, with the team going through three managers in as many seasons from 2011-2013.

Dombrowski went right to work in his first offseason, focusing mainly on the pitching staff, resulting in a division title in 2016 and another in 2017. The team stalled out on its first two playoff tries -- swept in the Division Series the first time, and winning just one game the next -- before breaking through with his championship run in 2018.

Say this much for Dombrowski: he's one of three executives since 1918 to be the architect of a Red Sox championship club. That's pretty select company.

2. The blockbuster trades for pitching.

In Montreal, Miami and Detroit, Dombrowski earned the reputation of being a big-time wheeler-dealer, pulling off mega-deals for superstars. Often, Dombrowski plundered his own minor league system for proven major-league talent.

That pattern followed him to Boston. After just three months on the job, Dombrowski sent four prospects to the San Diego Padres in exchange for closer Craig Kimbrel, who anchored the team's bullpen for the next three seasons.

Some 25 months later, Dombrowski struck again, packaging another four minor leaguers -- headed by Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech, arguably the top-ranked position player and pitching prospects in the organization at the time -- for Chris Sale, who went 29-12 with a 2.56 ERA over 372.2 innings in his first two seasons with the Sox.

3. Hiring Alex Cora.

After the Sox fired John Farrell, the Red Sox began a brief -- and direct -- search for his replacement.

Just three names were considered -- Brad Ausmus and Ron Gardenhire were the others -- before the team seized upon Cora.

At the time, it's no stretch to suggest that Cora would have been the first choice of a handful of teams looking for a manager. But behind Dombrowski, the Sox moved swiftly and made the smart hire.

In his first season,  Cora successfully changed the clubhouse culture, improved communication with the players, integrated input from the analytics department and, not incidentally, won the division by eight games and a World Series on his first try.

THE BAD

1. The cost of doing business.

In 2018, the Red Sox spent more money than ever in their history, with a payroll just a few shekels under $240 million. Of course, when you're dominating the regular season, then trampling the next three best teams in the game in October, it looks like money well spent.

But in the postgame celebration on the Dodger Stadium infield, John Henry was already bemoaning the size of the payroll and thanking his limited partners and minority owners for their patience and willingness to forgo returns on their investment for the satisfaction of winning a title.

However, when Dombrowski oversaw a payroll even larger this season -- in fact, by some measures, the biggest payroll in the sport's history -- and failed to have it result in a playoff spot, that helped spell the end of Dombrowski's tenure in Boston.

If you're going to spend big, you'd better have something to show for it. The 2019 Red Sox did not.

2. The plundering of the minor league system.

When Dombrowski took over for Ben Cherington in 2015, the Red Sox developmental system was universally regarded as one of the Top Five in the game.

But after the trades for Sale, Kimbrel, Tyler Thornburg, Drew Pomeranz and others, the system has been stripped down. And even with a strong 2019 and the return to health of Jay Groome, it's still thought of as a bottom-third system.

Of course, this should hardly come as a shock, especially to Red Sox ownership, since this was Dombrowski's well-established pattern: win now and worry about the future later. It happened in Detroit, where on Dombrowski's watch, the Tigers won two pennants and went to the ALCS two other times, but now, four years after Dombrowski left town, have the worst record in the game.

The next GM/President of Baseball Operations will not inherit a system anywhere near as deep and plentiful as the one bequeathed to Dombrowski 49 months ago.

3. Lack of creativity.

Again, Dombrowski's big moves were (mostly) good ones -- Kimbrel, Sale and to a mixed degree, David Price. Even some smaller deadline acquisitions were strong -- Steve Pearce, Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Nunez among them.

But what was lacking were the smaller, unheralded acquisitions that improve the organizational depth and prove to be invaluable when injuries strike or underperformance happens.

Look at the New York Yankees, who were ravaged by a string of injuries earlier this year, yet have led the division wire-to-wire and stand as one of the American League's two best teams. GM Brian Cashman obtained Luke Voit, Gio Urhsela and Mike Tauchman in under-the-radar acquisitions over the last two seasons and each has proven invaluable.

By my count, the lone player on the Red Sox' current 40-man roster who fits that description is reliever Josh Taylor, who was the player to be named later in the deal that sent Deven Marrero to Arizona.

It's not always difficult to spend big money on free agents or ship out prospects someone else has developed.

What's hard is uncovering undervalued talent to improve a roster, and that's something Dombrowski didn't do nearly often enough.