Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy was solemn Thursday afternoon.
“We’re aiming for World Series championships. That’s it. That’s the aim. That’s the goal. That’s why we’re here. We’re here to win championships. Our fans deserve World Series championships, as many as we can possibly win,” he mentioned.
“That’s what the Boston Red Sox are all about,” Kennedy added.
Not this yr, although. His workforce entered the day 73-72, tied with the New York Yankees for final place within the American League East.
That’s why virtually 70 minutes earlier than the primary sport of a doubleheader with their fellow cellar-dwellers, the Red Sox fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Thursday morning. Like his predecessors, Dave Dombrowski and Ben Cherington, Bloom was out and in of Boston in lower than 4 years.
In the interim, basic supervisor Brian O’Halloran and the workforce’s three assistant GMs will captain the ship. The Red Sox have additionally provided O’Halloran a brand new place in senior management, however on the time of Kennedy’s media availability hadn’t accepted the function but.
“We wanted to make sure that BOH knows exactly how we feel about him,” Kennedy mentioned. “This guy’s got four World Series rings, he’s an incredible leader in our organization. So, we did offer him a position, a different senior leadership role, which I’m very, very hopeful he will accept and help lead us go forward.”
Kennedy entered the interview room at 12:45 p.m., and after making a press release, fielded 20 minutes of questions. On the subjects of Bloom’s dismissal, how the group will strategy changing him, and the workforce’s future, he was a mixture of open and guarded, optimistic and melancholic. He made a number of statements aimed toward convincing the baseball world that the Red Sox stay dedicated to profitable all of it.
“We expected a team that would be in this thing and a postseason contender, and unfortunately, we all know we fell short of that,” Kennedy mentioned.
It was the primary time a member of Red Sox management admitted what appeared true for the previous few weeks: that this workforce is out of the operating.
Asked whether or not the workforce’s quiet commerce deadline and subsequent collapse factored into the firing, Kennedy took the diplomatic route.
“It’s an old cliche, you know, we are in the results business, so results ultimately always matter,” he mentioned. “I think it’s not appropriate to sort of go back several months and analyze what went wrong. We’ve done a lot of that internally, so I think it’s important that we just look forward now.”
Where the workforce goes from right here is unclear. After rebuilding the farm system and at occasions tinkering with or slashing the payroll, the upcoming offseason seemed like make-or-break for Bloom. If, armed with a well-stocked arsenal of prospects, a younger core, and monetary flexibility, he nonetheless couldn’t construct a winner subsequent yr, then maybe it will be time to maneuver on.
Instead, another person could have the prospect to construct upon the inspiration he leaves behind.
It gained’t be an outdated, very profitable buddy, although.
“I can rule out Theo Epstein as a candidate. I know there’s speculation, there’s professional history, there’s an even longer personal history,” Kennedy mentioned of the Brookline native, “but I can rule Theo Epstein out.”
Nor will it’s David Stearns, the ace govt who gave the Milwaukee Brewers a powerful excessive makeover. Throughout the season, a number of MLB insiders linked the Red Sox to him, however he’s already off the board; he agreed to a five-year cope with his hometown New York Mets on Tuesday. When a reporter alluded to Stearns, Kennedy replied that the Red Sox hadn’t approached anyone to gauge curiosity prior to creating the choice to fireplace Bloom.
The means of changing him will start instantly, Kennedy declared. However, whereas Bloom had been on an inventory of 1 once they determined to switch Dombrowski, Kennedy mentioned he anticipates “a broader search” this time round. “One that, frankly, could take a while,” he mentioned.
While Kennedy wouldn’t go into element or speculate as to potential candidates, he did define some key attributes. “We need leadership,” he mentioned, “… leadership that is focused on winning at the big-league level.”
“Like I said, we need to be competitive,” he mentioned. “We need to be playing for a postseason spot, playing meaningful games in September, and playing baseball in October.”
“Those are the expectations, and we’re going to not rest until we’re back at that stage.”
Bloom is the primary domino to fall, however he might not be the final. While Kennedy mentioned he envisions Alex Cora managing the workforce subsequent yr, he additionally made it clear that whoever replaces Bloom would have the ability to vary that.
“There’s a lot that has to improve, and that includes our on-field staff, so the baseball operations leadership will come in with a mandate to run the department,” Kennedy mentioned. “All aspects of the department.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com
