Dombrowksi this past offseason gave big money contracts to both Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldigetty images
Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski is "under contract for just one more season," and he is "clearly not the guy to oversee a much-needed farm system rebuild," according to Dan Shaughnessy of the BOSTON GLOBE. Dombrowski has "few friends inside Fenway's walls," and has "increasingly isolated himself" with Senior VP/Player Personnel Frank Wren and VP & Special Advisor Tony La Russa. Shaughnessy: "I'll be shocked if Dave Dombrowski is back with the Red Sox next season. ... When you have the top payroll in baseball and don't make the playoffs, somebody has to go." Dombrowski may have delivered a championship last season, but he also "gets the blame" for the contracts given to Ps Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi and for "failing to address the bullpen need" (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/7). In Boston, John Tomase writes Dombrowski's job security is a "natural topic of conversation given his cratering team." The next "great Red Sox team is going to require a chisel, not a bulldozer, and Dombrowski's wearing a hard hat" (NBCSPORTSBOSTON.com, 8/6). In Providence, Bill Reynolds writes the Red Sox entered this season with "expectations as high as the Green Monster," after winning it all last year. Most of the players "returned, so the feeling was this team could repeat, or get pretty close" (PROVIDENCE JOURNAL, 8/7).
MAKING THE TOUGH DECISIONS: NBCSPORTSBOSTON.com's Tomase wrote Dombrowski "made the right call" in not making a trade at the deadline, as this Red Sox team "did not deserve the help." Dombrowski deciding "not to throw away future resources in the service of a lost cause will ultimately go down as the correct long-term move, even if it costs him the clubhouse and maybe even eventually his job." It is "hard to blame Dombrowski for making a cold, dispassionate evaluation and deciding that nope, a couple of relievers won't make a difference" (NBCSPORTSBOSTON.com, 8/3).
