There are World Series hangovers and there’s whatever is going on in Boston. And now the team have no general manager – and an uncertain future
It hasn’t even been 12 months since the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, but it’s felt like far longer for their suffering fans. Despite bringing back nearly the same lineup – we’ll get into the exceptions in a bit – the Red Sox were eliminated from playoff contention on Friday night, with a 5-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The fall of the Sox, who won a franchise-high 108 games last season, was so swift and painful that ownership parted ways with the team’s general manager, Dave Dombrowski, last week. There are World Series hangovers and there’s whatever is going on in Boston.
There’s an argument that parting ways with Dombrowski was the right move in the long run. Dombrowski’s tactics, particularly during his stint with the Detroit Tigers, have been to spend big money on free agents and bundle up high-tier prospects to trade for big-name players. It’s a strategy that can build impressive rosters in the short run but can also saddle teams with bloated payrolls and barren farm systems. It was possible, maybe even likely, that the Sox ownership were seeing signs that his approach was going to start backfiring and decided to make a move earlier rather than later.