Yesterday I wrote about changes that the Red Sox need to make in order to get back in to contention in the American League.
The first order of business was finding a veteran baseball operations man to lead that department. Whether or not Ben Cherington stays on as general manager - I think he will get another chance - the Red Sox do need a czar of the baseball operations department.
A dream scenario would be the return of Theo Epstein from the Cubs to rescue the Red Sox from a third last place finish over the last four years. The Epstein dream is based on the exit of his onetime mentor turned nemesis Larry Lucchino from Red Sox management but also on the hope that the Cubs can win their first World Series since 1908 and Epstein's desire to actually leave Chicago to return to Boston.
Let's just say that there's a better chance of Donald Trump winning the presidency than there is of Theo Epstein returning to run baseball operations for the Red Sox.
The other name that I threw out yesterday was Dave Dombrowski. When I wrote that in the morning, Dombrowski was still under contract with the Detroit Tigers but that contract was set to run out at the end of the season. By mid-afternoon, Dombrowski had been released from his contract and was free to join any team in the game.
Will that team be the Red Sox?
According to a Red Sox source, the answer is no. Hopefully that is just an initial statement as the organization determines whether or not Dombrowski would actually want a job with the Red Sox. It would not look good for the team to declare their desire to land Dombrowski only to see him land with one of several teams - the Angels and Blue Jays are rumored to be suitors - that also are in need of a boss for baseball operations.
Having a leader with the experience and accomplishments of Dombrowski would be a step in the right direction for the Red Sox. Cherington has helped put together one World Series team already but having a veteran presence who turned the Expos into a contender in the early 1990's before building the 1997 Marlins team into a World Series champion and now has transformed the Tigers from a team that lost 119 games into one that has won two American League pennants in his time in Detroit would help turn the Red Sox back into a contender immediately.
The hope here is that someone from the Red Sox - maybe, in a twist of fate, it's Lucchino - is talking with Dombrowski through back channels and can convince him to come to Boston with the power of having final say over all baseball decisions.
Adding Dombrowski would signal that the Red Sox organization recognizes that they need to make an important change and are willing to go outside the organization to bring in an experienced baseball operations man to run the show. It would be an important hire and would give hope to the fans that they are serious about turning things around instead of just throwing money at free agents in the winter and hoping that it will work out once the season starts.
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