Could Theo Epstein Return Home To The Boston Red Sox?
The World Series title defense here in Boston came to an end, officially, in September, but really the hopes of such a title defense died in April.
Because of that, Dave Dombrowski was fired as President of Baseball Operations at midnight on a Sunday night in September. Was the 2019 season the only reason that Dombrowski was fired? No. The Red Sox are now in a position where they have to build the next great Red Sox team, draft and develop a new core, replenish the farm system with perhaps one of the biggest trades in franchise history and supplement that with free agent talent both from within the league and internationally. The Red Sox felt Dombrowski was not the man for that job, so here we are.
Eddie Romero remains the frontrunner to assume the role that was vacated by Dombrowski, but Romero is already in the organization. If the Red Sox wanted to, they could make him the general manager or president of baseball operations today, yesterday, two weeks ago. They haven’t. That means that they’re keeping their options open for candidates outside of the organization, as they should. That doesn’t mean that they will for sure replace Dombrowski with someone from the outside, but they’re absolutely keeping that door open.
What about Theo Epstein?
On Buster Olney’s podcast two weeks ago, Peter Gammons spoke on a potential reunion between Epstein and the Red Sox and what would have to happen to facilitate such a move. Gammons suggested that perhaps a stake in ownership could do the trick. It’d make sense since Epstein left Boston as their GM for a promotion as the president of baseball operations for the Cubs. How do you go up from there? Well, a stake in ownership would certainly be enticing and worth more than any salary that’s paid out as a GM of a president of baseball ops.
Now, this begs the question of, would you even want Theo back? I’ll start by saying this — there’s no perfect candidate. It’s not like free agency when you could look at the market this year and be like, well, we’re a team with financial flexibility and we need starting pitching. Gerrit Cole. Boom, done. It ain’t that easy as it pertains to baseball executives.
Red Sox fans have fond memories of Epstein because of his time in Boston resulting in the first World Series title in 86 years and then another title three years later for good measure. Epstein’s fingerprints were also all over the 2013 and 2018 World Series titles, too. David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Clay Buchholz, Jacoby Ellsbury, Will Middlebrooks, Xander Bogaerts, and John Lackey just to name a few from the 2013 World Series team. And then again in 2018, you had Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Matt Barnes, Christian Vazquez, Blake Swihart, and the aforementioned Bogaerts. Those were all Theo guys.
He’s built winners in Boston multiple times, and he built a World Series winner for the Chicago Cubs for the first time in 108 years. But the one blemish on Theo has been, and perhaps always will be, his track record with big name free agents. Carl Crawford, Jason Heyward, and now Craig Kimbrel. It’s not his strong suit. After winning the World Series in 2016, the Cubs have now lost in the NLCS, lost in the Wild Card game, and now they’ll more than likely miss the postseason entirely this year.
When rumors started to pop up about a potential Red Sox reunion with Epstein, there were a lot of Cubs fans who gave off the “you can have ‘em” stance. Not all, but some. Beyond the free agent busts, Epstein was also at the helm for the Aroldis Chapman for Gleyber Torres trade that Cubs fans are still bitter about. In my opinion, they shouldn’t be. Chapman helped deliver that historic World Series title in 2016, while Torres appears to be a future Hall of Famer in just his age-22 season. Torres has been in the league for two years, an All Star in both, and is enjoying what could end up being a 40-homer season with just two more long balls.
While I understand Cubs fans’ pain watching Torres tear the cover off the ball in the Bronx, it was a necessary evil. It was. Could the Cubs have given up less in order to acquire Chapman? That’s a different question, but not every trade has to be a fleece for teams to “win” a trade. Both teams can “win” a trade and that’s okay. You’re seeing it now with the Chris Sale trade. Sale helped bring a World Series title to Boston in the franchise’s best season ever, and Yoan Moncada is flourishing in the south side of Chicago with Michael Kopech having the potential to become what Mets fans hoped Noah Syndergaard would be. Jury’s still out on that one.
So, all of that just to say that I’m not confident Epstein will return to Boston at all. It wouldn’t exactly be the best look to have the 2011 Red Sox suffer a historic collapse in September to then abruptly leave for the Cubs gig, only to then leave the Cubs to go back to the Red Sox when Chicago melts down and misses the playoffs in September here in 2019. I will say this, though — I don’t blame Theo for leaving after 2011. He had been handcuffed by Larry Lucchino during his tenure in Boston, wanting, but not receiving, full control over baseball operations. With Lucchino out of the picture and a stake in ownership, perhaps that’s something that would lure Epstein back to where it all started.
But would I want Epstein back? Fuck yeah, I would. I’ve always been a Theo Guy. It’s been fun to watch what he’s been able to do, having full control of an organization, finally being able to implement in Chicago what he wanted to in Boston. John Henry has always been a huge supporter of Epstein’s, so I’d imagine that relationship is still solid. Since he’s been gone, fellow Brookline native Sam Kennedy has climbed the ranks within the organization to now becoming the president of the team, while that bond has always been strong.
If it’s not Epstein, then I hope it’s Romero. But I’d be lying to you if I said that I don’t want Theo back. I do. The main reason being that I’ve always wondered what the organization would’ve looked like had Lucchino stayed out of Theo’s hair. He’d have that opportunity and a boatload of money to go along with it if he decided to come back. Come home, Theo. Come home.