Is the Clock Ticking on John Farrell?

If this Red Sox team was not sitting near the tip of the American League East, John Farrell would more than likely be standing in the unemployment line waiting for opportunity to arise.

Well, maybe.

It’s not Farrell’s fault that the players he has been dealt have not been hitting to save their lives.

The only consistent sources of offense all season has been from Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia. Other than them, the bats have been an absolute roller coaster ride.

But where and how does a manager fit into the lack of offense?

Let’s start way back in the year 1966. Under the management of Billy Herman, that Red Sox team finished with a record of 72-99, which averages out to a winning percentage of .444. All the positions combined had a WAR of -5.5.

That was Herman’s last year managing the Boston Red Sox.

Dick Williams took control of the team the next season and the team instantly woke up.

That 1967 team had 92 wins to 70 losses for a .568 winning percentage. What a turnaround.

The average WAR for the team was 11.5 which was a big difference from the year prior.

The Impossible Dream Team made it to the World Series, but lost 4-3 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

After the failed Bobby Valentine experiment in 2012, Farrell got hired to turn around a team that just ended their year at 69-93. He succeeded, big time. He added 29 wins and the took home a World Series title.

But sometimes the wake up of getting a new manager begins to wear off, like it began to do in 2015 still under Farrell control.

Farrell had to miss the last 48 games of the season, which left bench coach Torey Lovullo to manage the rest of the way.

Prior to the switch, the club’s record was 50-64.
But, during the management reign of Lovullo, the record saw better numbers. He led them to a 28-20 mark to conclude the remainder of that season.

That’s a winning percentage of .583, which averages out to about a 94-68 season when rounded out to a full 162-game season.

That should have been enough to give him a management job. With that winning record and the history of new managers having victorious seasons, one would think it would be a no-brainer to have him take over.

But no, he was back to bench coaching the next season as Farrell was over playing Betts and Xander Bogaerts, which led to a first-round sweep at the hands of the Terry Francona-led Cleveland Indians.

This past offseason, Lovullo was signed as the manager to the Arizona Diamondbacks to see if he could pull that team out of the ground. After going 69-94 last year with Chip Hale’s management, the Diamondbacks are 57-43 under, even with the departure of Jean Segura.

The Red Sox missed out on something special.

The only problem with getting rid of Farrell is that it would be difficult to find someone who could replace him as there is not a long list of qualified individuals.