By Matthew Grady 10/13/17
After five years of varying results, Red Sox Manager John Farrell was fired on Wednesday. Farrell was let go two days after the Red Sox lost their series to the Astros, knocking them out of contention for the World Series this year.
Farrell, previously a pitching coach for the Red Sox, took over as manager after the team had a disastrous 2012 season under Bobby Valentine. From there, he would bring the team to three American League East titles, a World Series title, and he became the second most successful Red Sox manager in the last 50 years. Although Farrell brought the team to back-to-back division titles, he also led them to consecutive first-round losses in the playoffs in this year and last year.
Dave Dombrowski, the President of Baseball Operations for the Red Sox, said at a press conference that he would not get into particular details of this firing, but did state that this was not a “…snap decision.” He also claimed that the Red Sox’s loss to the Astros was “…not the reason.” Dombrowski did not hire Farrell as manager.
Farrell was confident in his role as manager even after his loss and stated, “I know that we have got [an] opportunity to assess where we are as a team. I can’t begin to talk about what the offseason plans are and what [changes] may be realized, but still there’s a lot of good things that are going on here.”
Despite this confidence, Farrell was sharply criticized by the fans. Recently on social media, he was denounced both for his benching of Hanley Ramirez in Game 1 of the division series and for not pulling Chris Sale out earlier in Game 4.
Many players spoke well of Farrell. Chris Sale commented that, “[Farrell] gave me every opportunity to succeed. I can say the same for everybody on this team.”
As of now, the Red Sox have not lined up a new manager.
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