Fallout: What more can the Red Sox fix after disappointing finish?

Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts

As a Red Sox fan, it was pretty painful to watch this year’s postseason. All the managerial blunders (Hanley Ramirez out in game one, benching Rafael Devers in game two, and so on) made the experience excruciating on the eyes. I wanted to carve my eyes out at points watching this Red Sox team let off home run after home run. I cursed at the television, I took to social media throughout the series and I even yelled in excitement as Ramirez mounted a comeback in Game 3. It was a wild ride and I admit, when Pedroia grounded out to end the season, I stormed off cursing this team. "This stupid team! A bunch of pathetic losers!"

In the fallout of this season, I put a lot of this on manager John Farrell not because he’s an easy scapegoat, but because it truly is on Farrell. Remember back to before the season started. The Red Sox acquired Chris Sale and combined him with some of the best talent in baseball, creating headlines like “The best team in baseball,” “World Series or bust” and more. The team was even favorites to win it all according to Vegas. So what happened? Injuries? Maybe. Pedroia did miss time, David Price as well and Mookie Betts has battled a wrist injury as of late. But putting that all aside, the team still scored the tenth most runs in major league baseball (785), had the seventh most doubles in baseball (302) and finished 13^th in average (.258). They’re an above average offense and fit inside the top-10 in the MLB.

Their pitching is similar.

The team finished fourth in ERA, second in quality starts, third in strikeouts and ninth in batting average against. All this along with the tab of “one of the best bullpens in baseball.” So what happened?

It’s manager John Farrell.

There are many managers that can do what Farrell did and has done throughout the regular season. Farrell has won back-to-back division titles, made it to the playoffs multiple times as manager and has coached winning teams in general. He’s even won a World Series, I can’t knock him for that. But managers such as Dusty Baker, Buck Showalter, Clint Hurdle, Bob Melvin and more can do and have done the same thing (minus the World Series win). What I’m getting at here, is major league baseball has so many managers that can win regular season games, win divisions but when the game turns into a short series with the need for hyper focus, they falter. Farrell is in that crowd.

For instance, Farrell stated prior to Game 4 that Kimbrel would be available for two innings of relief. With Alex Bregman, a righty who has had success against lefties (.331 average), it makes sense to bring in Craig Kimbrel. Instead, Farrell leaves Sale in the game, probably because Sale was pitching well (although on short rest and after Farrell said he wouldn’t be in the game for long), but nonetheless, Sale was tiring. Watch the game footage. Sale’s movement got progressively worse (as expected) with the greatest difference coming at the end of the seventh inning. Not to ramble on anymore, Bregman hits a home run, Farrell continues to keep Sale in the game and then randomly decides he will bring Kimbrel in with two outs following a fly out.

To play a little Monday Morning Quarterback, I looked up Craig Kimbrel’s lifetime stats. After looking through amazing and unbelievable numbers (really look through them, they’re amazing) I found a couple blemishes that show how Kimbrel doesn't succeed coming in at the exact time Farrell decided to bring him in.

When entering with two outs in an inning, Kimbrel gives up the most hits, runs, doubles, home runs, you name it than in any other situation throughout his career. With two outs and a runner on first, Kimbrel has given up 40 hits, 25 runs and has walked 22. Eyeballing the stats, it’s a situation that sticks out on the paper.

Of course, Farrell doesn’t know this in game, nor that he should. It’s a little MMQB action. But what should he know? That Kimbrel, this season, hasn’t been too good when asked to come in without a clean inning. That Kimbrel is statistically worse in one-run games. That Kimbrel has blown the game in high leverage situations for the Braves in Game 3 of the NLDS in 2010 and Game 4 in 2013. Just by knowing who Craig Kimbrel is, anyone can understand the he is best when given a clean inning and has faltered previously in high leverage situations during the playoffs. It's eyeballing. I had conversations about these exact things as Kimbrel came out of the bullpen.

So what does this all mean?

If the Red Sox want to win a World Series, they need a manager who understands how to manage when the games get intense. Any solid manager can win regular season games but a truly great one knows how to win playoff series. They know how to micromanage to win games when they matter most. Farrell can’t do that.

So whatever 2013 means in this argument, I concede that Farrell has won in the past. But it doesn’t mean anything now, as the Red Sox are 1-6 in their last two postseasons. They have a team with something ethically wrong with them (Eck and Price feud, Jackie Bradley Jr. and his twitter post with Eck and Pedroia finger pointing) and competitively. How do you change this? Not by going out and spending more money on top talent. It’s about the manager getting every little ounce out of the mediocre players on the roster. It’s why Brad Stevens is so coveted around here and why fans yell to bring back Terry Francona. Farrell doesn’t have it anymore. It’s time to look elsewhere.