In retrospect, Dave Dombrowski's honeymoon period was very brief. Like, perhaps as little as 24 hours.
Last fall, on the morning of the Red Sox' World Series parade, principal owner John Henry stood on the Fenway Park lawn, and unprompted, volunteered that the Red Sox needed to get to work on an extension for their president of baseball operations.
At that moment, Dombrowski's stock had never been higher. Coming off two straight division titles, the team he had helped put together had just finished winning a franchise-record 108 regular-season wins before rolling over three 100-win teams in October to reach championship status.
Understandably, Henry didn't want Dombrowski going into the final year of his deal viewed as a lame-duck. But within hours -- perhaps even that same night -- it became obvious that an extension for Dombrowski was going to be highly problematic.
The problem? Money.
But not Dombrowski's -- though he had told several people in the game that he thought his next deal should lift him into the same financial neighborhood as both Andrew Friedman and Theo Epstein, both of whom were pulling down salaries of $7 million or greater, or roughly twice what Dombrowski was earning.
One major league source confirmed recently that the talks never got that far.
No, it was more about how much money Dombrowski was going to be given to spend on team payroll.
The Sox were coming off a season in which they had just spent about $245 million in payroll, taking them over the third and final threshold of MLB's competitive balance tax (CBT), incurring the highest tax rate and a loss of 10 slots in the 2019 amateur draft. At the time, though Henry joked in the immediate aftermath of some unhappiness among his limited partners, it was money well spent.
Moreover, the Sox had given the green light for Dombrowski to spend nearly as much as 2019. There were some long-term commitments on the books (David Price, Dustin Pedroia and the final year of the Chris Sale contract that they assumed from Chicago when they obtained the pitcher, plus big arbitration raises in store for the likes of Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts). That flexibility also allowed him to retain both Nathan Eovaldi and Steve Pearce as free agents without regard to payroll level.
But Henry had its limits. The expectation was that the Sox would begin to pare back spending starting in 2020, to reset the team's luxury tax relates while delivering some return on investment for the franchise's numerous minority owners and limited partners.
A talk between Henry and Dombrowski -- that may well have taken place that same night, after the parade -- revealed a difference of opinion between the two on at least one big issue.
In meeting with reporters Friday afternoon, Henry didn't get too specific about the exact issues, but it seems rather obvious that a big part of the gulf was future spending.
Henry was willing to spend $200 million or more in 2020 -- but not $240 for the third straight season. And just as obviously, it's logical to conclude, Dombrowski wanted to keep spending at or near the level to which he had become accustomed, pouring resources into the major league roster rather than depending on internal development.
"What changed quickly was right after the World Series, we had preliminary talks about our way forward,'' said Henry Friday, "and it was clear to me we weren't on the same page at that point. There was a difference, I think, in how we thought we should move forward.''
What else could Henry have been referring to if not payroll and spending? It wasn't about analytics, or style of play, or the future of Alex Cora.
No, Dombrowski talked himself out of an extension not because he asked for too much in salary -- as some had forecast might have eventually been a sticking point -- but rather, because he asked for too much to spend on the salaries of others.
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- Houston was 17-1 against Seattle
- The Yankees were 17-2 against Baltimore
- Cleveland was 18-1 against Detroit
- Minnesota was 14-5 against Detroit
- Atlanta was 15-4 against Miami.
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