Butterfield Magic: Should the Red Sox fire John Farrell?

Bill Foley (@Foles74)
Contributing Writer

The Boston Red Sox haven’t fired a manager during the since they canned Jimy Williams in 2001.

Michael Ivins/Getty Images

That move didn’t work out too well as pitching coach Joe Kerrigan took over and promised to write the lineup in stone. Instead, he used a different lineup nearly every night and went 17-26 in his short stay as skipper.

That wasn’t exactly Morgan Magic, like when the Red Sox fired John McNamara in 1988.

The 1988 Red Sox were an underperforming bunch at 43-42 when McNamara, who took the Sox to the World Series two years earlier, got the axe. Third base coach Joe Morgan took over as manager, and the Red Sox won 19 of his first 20 games, including his first 12.

Boston ended up in the ALCS that year, losing to the Oakland A’s.

Friday’s disheartening 7-0 loss at Toronto dropped the Red Sox to 13-16. To say that is underperforming is a major understatement. Their record, by the way, is the same as it was through 29 games last season when the Red Sox were historically bad.

Blaming one miserable season on injuries and bad luck is one thing. When you start to duplicate that monumental failure again the next year, you can’t help but see it as a trend.

As they say, you are what your record says you are. Including his years in Toronto, John Farrell is a 335-342 manager.

Is Farrell’s job safe because the 2013 World Series title?

The Sox fired pitching coach Juan Nieves on Thursday, and he, too, has a 2013 World Series ring. So you’d have to think the possibility of a removing a manager who won't remove his pitcher until it's 7-0 has at least crossed the mind of Red Sox management.

You’d also have to think that hitting coach Chili Davis has to feel like he’s on notice, too, since the offense we thought was going to be among the best in baseball is a complete disaster.

Farrell likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon because his contract was extended through the 2017 season in February. And maybe it is too early to make that call anyway.

Still, a team that we thought had the chance go from worst to at least contending again is going nowhere fast. If things don’t turn around quickly, you’d have to hope the Red Sox will at least consider a move to try to save the season.

Plus, Butterfield Magic has a nice ring to it.

What do you think?