Farrell comfortable on hot seat
With Torey Lovullo out of Boston and settled into the manager’s office for the Arizona Diamondbacks, John Farrell lost one of his best friends.
But he might have gained some job security.
Beginning his fifth year as the Red Sox manager, Farrell has a new bench coach, Gary DiSarcina, who has respect from his peers but lacks the experience and reputation of Lovullo, who was long known to be a manager-in-waiting.
Farrell’s job security might look a little tighter now, but the expectations on the 2017 Sox are too high for any manager to be safe. Injuries already are beginning to pile up, which puts the onus more on president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski than Farrell if things go sour in April and May. But if David Price, Tyler Thornburg, Carson Smith and others return to health and the Red Sox still underperform, there will be plenty of blame to go around.
Farrell declined a request to be interviewed about what he’s learned in four years as the Red Sox manager, uninterested in talking about his experiences, the good and the bad. But to those wondering if he notices the criticism, he offered a glimpse Monday when he was asked if Eduardo Rodriguez has the potential to be an ace.
“That’s probably a really good conversation around a beer or something, when you start (assigning) ones and twos and threes,” Farrell said. “I’ve been chastised for saying there are five No. 1s before. Well, you know what, on a given night, he’s our No. 1 guy. I’ll always stand by it.”
Told the radio personalities would enjoy hearing that, Farrell smiled and said, “Whatever.”
He might be starting to get past it, at times appearing less sensitive to criticism than he originally was.
He’s endured ugly seasons in 2014 and 2015 and a change from former general manager Ben Cherington to Dombrowski. And after undergoing treatment for lymphoma in 2015, he returned to good health and famously declared a renewed sense of urgency that helped propel the 2016 team back to the playoffs.
Dombrowski has played a role in the drama. He chose to keep Farrell around when he originally took the reins in August, 2015 and offered continuous support for him, even when the 2016 team got off to a disappointing 8-8 start.
“I think he’s a good manager, actually,” Dombrowski said at the time.
But in June, Dombrowski deflected a question when asked about his confidence in Farrell. A few weeks later, asked if Farrell’s job was safe, Dombrowski said he never would make that declaration.
There was the bizarre incident at season’s end, when Dombrowski made Farrell wait until after a press conference to announce the manager would return for 2017. He didn’t pick up Farrell’s option for 2018 until much later.
No manager lasts forever. But Farrell is surviving. He’s jumped in and out of hot water several times during his four-year tenure and given the Red Sox two first-place finishes, two last-place finishes and one World Series title.
“He’s the right guy to be our leader this year and for the future,” Sox chairman Tom Werner said this spring.
But having been through the gauntlet in Boston, Farrell is well-aware how it works: Words matter much less than wins.