Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE
Remember the days when managers used to also play in games? If baseball is all about one thing it’s about tradition and a weird aspect of the National Pastime is about to transpire. The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays are on the verge of completing a trade that would send not a player, but manager John Farrell to Boston to become the Sox new skipper.
Farrell is far and away the Red Sox top choice to take over after the Bobby Valentine experiment failed miserably. The club fired Valentine on October 4th and it’s been made clear long before that date that the Sox are over the moon about Farrell.
According to multiple reports, once a player or players are agreed on, the final stage of the deal is getting a contract in place for Farrell in Boston. Farrell currently has one year left on his deal in Toronto and a new deal would likely be in the range of two to four years in Boston. Farrell interviewed for the Red Sox managing position last season but after the awkward and ugly end to the Terry Francona era, the Red Sox were likely trying to distance from everyone involved with that mess.
Farrell was on that staff as Boston’s pitching coach and when the Sox passed on him, the Blue Jays snatched him up. Despite his success in Toronto, Farrell has made it known privately that he would love to coach the Red Sox and that it’s sort of a dream of his.
Someone in the Blue Jays organization must have gotten wind of this, as they’ve not only been on board for this trade form the start, but according to rival executive, the Blue Jays want nothing more to do with Farrell and are ready to fly Farrell to Boston on a charter plane as soon as they can. The finer details still need to be worked out, but it appears that very soon John Farrell will be the new manager of the Boston Red Sox.
But Farrell will be the Sox third manager in three years and despite his inside knowledge of the club and his affection for the job an the club, the pressure will be on for immediate success of some kind in Boston.
