Dombrowski fired by Red Sox

Jim Monaghan
Content Coordinator

We now have a scapegoat for the mess that has been the 2019 Boston Red Sox season, and his name is President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski.

Photo courtesy of USA Today
Just one year after winning the World Series, Dombrowski (pictured) was fired early Monday morning following a 10-5 loss to the New York Yankees at Fenway Park.

Manager Alex Cora was informed just moments after the game prior to his post-game press conference. His reaction, and those of the players, was said to be one of shock.

For the immediate future, a combination of four people will assume the responsibilities of the team's baseball operations - Eddie Romero, Brian O'Halloran and Zack Scott, who had been assistant general managers under Dombrowski, and Raquel Ferreira, the club’s senior vice president of Major and Minor League operations.

Dombrowski was hired in August 2015 and under his direction, the team won the American League Eastern Division for three straight seasons (2016-2018) for the first time in club history. The 2018 campaign was historic - 108 regular season victories capped off with the franchise's fourth world championship since 2004.

Dombrowski's reputation was "win now," and a number of his moves resulted in trading a number of the team's top minor league prospects. But what may have ultimately sealed his fate were contracts given to the likes of David Price, Chris Sale, and Nathan Eovaldi (all three of whom spent significant time on the injured list in 2019), and a decision to not properly deal with the bullpen departures of Craig Kimbrel and Joe Kelly.

Combine that with an underperforming season from Rick Porcello and you have the Red Sox in third place in the AL East virtually eliminated from winning the division (a "tragic number" of two) and eight games out of the second Wild Card playoff spot with just 19 games to play.

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