To say Bobby Valentine has had a rough debut season with the Boston Red Sox would be quite the understatement. The Red Sox (62-73) are 15 games out of first place in the American League East, which is why there are MLB rumors circulating that Bobby Valentine could be fired as soon as today.
Red Sox owner John Henry and general manager Ben Cherington are en route to Seattle to meet with Valentine in what certainly cannot be good news for the Boston skipper.Valentine, who replaced Terry Francona after the team’s epic choke job last September, received a “vote of confidence” last month from Henry, but things have gotten much worse since Henry publicly backed him.
The Sox haven’t won a game on their West Coast trip thus far, dropping all six games they have played, including a 33-5 drubbing the Oakland A’s put on the Red Sox this weekend. It’s likely that series is the straw that broke the camel’s back for Valentine.
The Red Sox struggles may have come as a surprise to many this season, seeing as many “experts” still picked them to at least represent the American League as a wild card team. But I had different ideas for the Red Sox, so much so that I predicted them to finish the season under .500.
Thanks to the epic GMing of their overrated wunderkind, Theo Epstein, Boston was behind the 8-ball from the get go. It also didn’t help things the team ruined Daniel Bard and Andrew Bailey was hurt for 2/3 of the season, but there wasn’t a whole lot to look forward to thanks to Epstein’s horrible free agency decisions.
The team was full of dead weight and without a pitching staff to speak of. The Sox needed Jon Lester and Josh Beckett to pitch like Cy Young winners to even have a chance this season. Instead, they pitched like minor leaguers for a majority of the year.
Is this season Bobby Valentine’s fault? Probably not. But this hire was the classic rebound hire. The Red Sox had a long-term relationship sour with Francona, so like a real relationship, they went out and got a short-term firecracker to try to solve a volatile situation.
Like all those real relationships, it didn’t work.
Bryan is a featured writer for Rant Sports. Although he concentrates mostly on the game of baseball, you can find him covering things all over the Rant Sports Network.
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