The surprise firing of Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski less than a year after the team won the World Series has left a gaping void at the top of Boston’s baseball operations department.
In a new piece, Alex Speier of The Boston Globe suggests it could be filled by a familiar face: Theo Epstein.
Epstein, whose fingerprints are all over Boston’s recent World Series wins (including last year’s), was able to bring the Cubs their first title in more than a 100 years and may be willing to move on from Chicago for a new challenge.
When Epstein moved from the Red Sox to the Cubs in October of 2011 after the Red Sox suffered a historic September collapse and fired manager Terry Francona, he explained his decision to leave his dream job in an op-ed for The Globe.
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“Football legend Bill Walsh used to say that coaches and executives should seek change after 10 years with the same team,” Epstein wrote. “The theory is that both the individual and the organization benefit from a change after so much time together. The executive gets rebirth and the energy that comes with a new challenge; the organization gets a fresh perspective, and the chance for true change that comes with new leadership. This idea resonated with me.”
Though he hasn’t quite hit the decade mark in Chicago, Epstein is closing in on it. Also, the circumstances in Chicago are similar to what they were when he jumped ship in Boston, as the team, losers of seven in row as of this writing, is about to blow a shot at the playoffs, and manager Joe Maddon is almost certain to be fired.
Also, as Speier points out, one of the big reasons Epstein left Boston was his strained relationship with former team CEO/president Larry Lucchino. His successor, Sam Kennedy, went to Brookline High with Epstein and the two are close.
“Might the team once again flip on a bat signal for Epstein, either by pursuing him directly or hiring someone who was close to him? And if so, would he be interested in responding?” Speier writes. “Would the Cubs permit him to do so? These are just a few of the many questions associated with the Red Sox opening, where silence has created a void filled not by information or a known candidate list but instead by conjecture.”
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