| Authored by Douglas Benton - 11th January, 2007 - 2:22 pm
 The story has now become something of folklore with Theo Epstein being from Brookline, Massachusetts and leading the hometown Red Sox to the 2004 World Series title. However, it hasn’t been all storybook times for Epstein in Boston as mounting expectations and power struggles have left him at a crossroads in his general manager career.
After working for the San Diego Padres, Epstein went to Boston after the 2002 season and took the position of general manager.
The 2006 season was the first of his tenure that the Red Sox missed the playoffs as the glow of his championship is starting to diminish.
From the beginning of his tenure, he was known for using the statistical analysis methods and making the big moves to change the face of the organization.
But New England’s deep-pocked resources allowed him to trade for Curt Schilling, sign Keith Foulke and add a group of veterans that could survive the somewhat torturous times of playing in Red Sox Nation.
However, after the World Series, he started trying to win the PR battles with the Yankees, which resulted in signings like Edgar Renteria when they had a shortstop in Hanley Ramirez ready to go and other subsequent deals that broke up the best clubhouse in baseball. This led to more losses and a power struggle between Epstein and team president Larry Lucchino, which led to a short resignation by Epstein that hurt his credibility and hindered the Red Sox off-season after the 2005 season.
With all of the big money moves mentioned before and the pressure to always win in Boston, the farm system has been neglected in respect to people coming up to Boston and producing. However, Epstein has followed fellow statistical GM’s by putting together solid drafts each year that has helped the Red Sox improve their organization ranking in each of Epstein’s years, according to Baseball America’s rankings.
Still, the talent is more used for trades, like Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez to the Marlins in the Josh Beckett deal. The Red Sox though have kept some talent, mostly in pitching, in Jonathan Papelbon and Craig Hansen, with a handful of position players coming up in the next few years.
While his flaws have been dissected by both local and national media, Epstein and his team of advisers do as well as job as anyone in the game of identifying players they can build around and then trading the others to help complement the chosen players. These core players come to Boston through a host of transactions with Epstein not showing a pattern of wanting to build one select way.
His time in Boston will be remembered long after he leaves for good because he helped build the team which broke the curse in 2004. Sports though are what have you done lately and Epstein lacks greatly in that discussion. Signings this off-season of Julio Lugo, Daisuke Matsuzaka and soon J.D. Drew should go a long way in bringing back up his star that shined so bright just a few years ago.
Signature Move: It should be fresh in everyone’s mind, but the signing of Matuszaka is a great symbol of how Epstein works when he is at his best. He knew the team needed a front-line starter to build on after Schilling leaves and deciding that Matsuzaka was just that. So, with the help of ownership, he posting a $51 million bid to negotiate and then signed him to a reasonable contract. Many questioned why he didn’t use this money to re-sign Pedro Martinez or Johnny Damon, but Epstein thought Matsuzaka was the piece he needed to win another championship. Only time will tell if he was right. |
