Dave Dombrowski’s fingerprints now cover the Red Sox' roster from its leadership to its rank and file.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla -- The clock officially starts on Dave Dombrowski when the first pitch is thrown at Tropicana Field on Thursday afternoon.
Maybe that’s the new reality for the Boston Red Sox entering the 2018 season.
Two consecutive American League East titles and a World Series championship in 2013 weren’t good enough to save the job of manager John Farrell. The game’s largest payroll has swelled north of $223 million, and Boston has been eliminated in the Division Series in each of the past two seasons.
In the face of those two playoff failures, Dombrowski was still allowed to consolidate his power over the club’s day-to-day operations. Farrell presided over a lukewarm clubhouse, the inhabitants of which appeared ready to embrace a change in the corner office. First-year manager Alex Cora will debut against Tampa Bay with another high-priced free agent in his lineup and expectations now apparently set on at least the AL Championship Series.
Dombrowski’s fingerprints now cover the Red Sox' roster from its leadership to its rank and file. David Price and J.D. Martinez have been lavished with contracts totaling 12 years and $327 million. Those two signings were sandwiched around a pair of trades for left-handed starting pitchers that stripped the top end of the farm system in 2016, with Chris Sale and Drew Pomeranz acquired for Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Anderson Espinoza, among others.
The sense of urgency increases further with the loss of team control imminent for several of the Boston’s young stars. Rick Porcello, Sale and Xander Bogaerts are all scheduled to walk in 2020. Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. could follow in 2021. The dead money Dombrowski inherited being paid to Pablo Sandoval and Rusney Castillo will be off the books by then, but the flow of talent out the door could prove difficult to slow.
The good news for Dombrowski?
Boston doesn’t lack for difference makers. Price, Sale and Porcello have combined for two Cy Young Awards and four other top-three finishes in the voting, with all three capable of carrying the rotation when healthy. Craig Kimbrel has struck out 44.1 percent of batters he’s faced through two seasons at the back of the Red Sox' bullpen.
Betts spoiled the Red Sox faithful by contending for Most Valuable Player honors in 2016, producing a season so impressive that his 2017 campaign could wrongly be seen in some quarters as a disappointment. Most 24-year-old regulars not named Mike Trout don’t increase their walk rate by 4.1 percent, compile an OPS of over .800 for the third straight year and lead major league outfielders by a country mile in UZR.
Bogaerts dropped off after being hit by a pitch on the right wrist in a July 6 game here last season, producing only 20 of his 48 extra-base hits over his final 259 at-bats. Bradley should settle somewhere between his breakout 2016 and his somewhat less impactful 2017 at the plate, with his elite defense in center field remaining a constant. Andrew Benintendi collected 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases while making his proper full-season debut in left field, announcing his presence as one of the game’s most disciplined, capable young hitters.
Cora’s task will be to steer his players with the same zest he showed during his three seasons as a utility man in Boston from 2006-08. Sandwiched in the middle was a 2007 World Series ring earned with a vibrant, eclectic cast of characters headlined by the likes of David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Mike Lowell, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, Tim Wakefield and Jonathan Papelbon. Those teams were defined by forceful personalities who embraced the big moment, not those who succumbed to Cleveland and Houston while going a combined 1-6.
Direction has been a focus throughout the spring, with Cora promising a fresh start and his players vowing renewed accountability. What Dombrowski has constructed will be tested immediately, with the resurgent New York Yankees visiting during the opening homestand and 19 of the next 25 games away from Fenway Park. A slow start and the almost certain ensuing frustrated response from the fan base could see midnight come much earlier than October this time around in the Back Bay.