Over the course of the next few days you are going to read a lot of stories about Theo Epstein and his fallout with the Red Sox. These stories will contain theories, conjecture, and speculation as to why the organization would let arguably their brightest star walk away spurned after bringing a championship to the most victory starved city in baseball nation. These stories will be wasting words, paper, and your time. There is only one reason that Theo Epstein is leaving the Red Sox and his name is Larry Lucchino, and any spin put on this story by the Red Sox will be an attempt to mask that fact.
This story just broke, but here is what happened as far as I can tell. First, some background, the New York Times, the parent company of the Boston Globe has a 17 percent ownership stake in the Red Sox, creating what is likely the greatest journalistic conflict of interest in sports. This financial relationship lends itself to certain privleges for the Globe, namely leaks and prioritized information but it also limits their ability to criticize to some extent. This has been discussed at great length in the past as some players, managers, and other personnel have felt that the relationship with the Globe was used to cast negative spin on them, for example Manny Ramirez. The Red Sox leaked the story regarding Manny's most recent trade demands exclusively to the Globe. One possible reason for this could be that the Red Sox are trying to cast Manny in a negative light to the fans therby changing their perception of him, diminishing their affection, and ultimately softening their anger should he be delt in the offseason. In a sense the Red Sox used to Globe as a political assistant to change public opinion.
This relationship with the Globe was a crucial pawn in Theo's negotiations as well. On Friday reports from "Red Sox insiders" were that a deal was essentially done, 3 years at 1.5 million per year. However, on Saturday, the Globe's Dan Shaughnessy published a piece about the relationship between Epstein and team president Larry Luccino including inside details about a tense confrontation that took place recently in Colorado. The purpose of this piece, according to Shaughnessy was to assist in bringing the two sides together, which of course is not his job but that's a discussion for another time. Apparently the contents of this story, which were acquired by Shaughnessy presumably from someone within the Red Sox organization, possibly Luccino himself, enraged Epstein. He was particularly miffed about the extent to which the story revealed private details from the meeting in Colorado and was deeply disturbed at the excessive disclosure by someone within the Red Sox.
Jump forward to today. This morning ESPN and other major news outlets led by the Boston Globe were reporting that Epstein and the Sox had agreed to the afore mentioned 3 year contract extension. This apparently was never the case, but the Globe, the news outlet with the closest relationship to the team reported the deal as done. Then at 5:00 PM this afternoon WEEI and the Boston Herald broke the story that not only had Theo not signed the deal but had actually resigned and was currently cleaning out his office.
A few big questions loom over this story. What changed between this morning and this afternoon to make Theo change his mind, if it was in fact ever made up? Why did the Red Sox release reports of a done deal if in fact there was no name on the dotted line? What impact will this move have on the status of the Red Sox on the field given their free agents (Damon, Mueller, Millar) and others who have asked out of Boston (Wells, Ramirez)?
What bothers me the most about this story is the manipulation of the media by the Red Sox to influence the negotiations. One possible reason for the report this morning could have been to put pressure on Epstein to accept the deal. They report it, or at least leak it, then Theo is in a position stuck between a story reporting what all his fans want to hear and his own misgivings about the situation. Also, if a deal was almost finished on Friday why didn't we hear anything about it then and what in the world could have been the point of the piece on Saturday airing all of the dirty laundry about the relationship between Epstein and Luccino especially if things seemed to be settling down nicely?
In the end the use of the media by the Red Sox to make themselves look good and to adversly portray Epstein backfired on them. I think that Luccino and the rest of the organization vastly underestimated Theo as a person. In letting Josh Byrnes go to Arizona to become the GM of the Diamondbacks the Red Sox revealed their intent to resign Theo, but they also revealed their arrogance concerning his potential for leaving. They believed that he was just a good old boy from Braintree who had always dreamed of working for the Red Sox and that there was no way that he would ever leave his "dream job" no matter how much they pushed. But they pushed him too far. Theo is a very private person, as Peter Gammons just reported on Sportscenter, and he was tired (even before these negotiations) of living constantly under the microscope that comes from working in Boston. Now that he has left the stain of this mistreatment lays totally on the Red Sox, they look terrible for a bevy of reasons. First they appear to have spurned and cast off the man who was able to do what so many GMs were not in winning a World Series. Second, they tried to use their own media outlet to bait and switch public opinion on Epstein and in failing made the public more aware that the Red Sox organization is a political machine and that the Globe is their mechanism of manipulation. And finally and most importantly they are without a general manager heading into what would have already been a tumultous off season.
This is shameful and embarassing for an organization that already seemed to be struggling to get out of its own way. With Epstein out and Manny asking for the same the face of the Red Sox in Fort Myers next February could be vastly different from the one that layed down and died in front of the White Sox in October. Without Theo, and if Manny goes with him, I don't like their chances of even having the opportunity to choke in the post season again.
As I fan I am feel terrible for Epstein and will be grateful to him forever for his contributions. I apologize for all of Boston and will certainly miss him.
No comments:
Post a Comment