After five years under Terry Francona, John Farrell is ready to take over the Jays
It’s all but official: John Farrell is set to become the next manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. Though Alex Anthopolous isn’t expected to hold the introductory press conference until later this afternoon, Red Sox owner John Henry confirmed to the Boston Globe over the weekend that his pitching coach is indeed on his way north.
The 48-year-old Farrell comes with no professional managing experience, which is fine by me. As much as its the nature of the business, do you really want to bring in a guy that’s been canned from a handful of other teams? Farrell comes over after spending five seasons as Boston’s pitching coach and was a part of the 2007 World Series team.
Reports late last week had Anthopolous’ search narrowed down to three candidates, with fellow Boston coach DeMarlo Hale and Indians first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr. In the mix with Farrell. Current third base coach Brian Butterfield was also interviewed, but after fading from the discussion early, is now unlikely to be back with the Jays in any capacity in 2011.
Back to Farrell, though: He’s proven to be one of the league’s up-an-coming coaches, leading a Boston staff that produced first-time all-stars Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz and Jonathan Papelbon under his reign. Also, doesn’t it feel a little good to steal an asset from those bums? Henry told the Globe Sunday that the Jays are getting “a great baseball man and a great person” and that although he would’ve loved to keep Farrell in Boston, it was time for him to “step up to the next level”.
In five years with Farrell as pitching coach, the Red Sox went 461-349, made the playoffs three times and as mentioned, won it all in 2007. In a nine-year playing career with the Indians, Angels and Tigers, Farrell went 36-46 with a 4.66 ERA.
It sounds like a good choice. I like Butterfield, but I think it was important to hire someone from outside the organization. We haven’t done that since Buck Martinez.
By: Michael Renusz on October 25, 2010
at 11:51 am
Butterfield had his shot when he was made bench manager a couple years ago but was demoted back to third this past year. Think it had something to do with his inability to fill out a lineup card properly.
By: Jeremy on October 25, 2010
at 8:20 pm