Nightengale: Red Sox want to ‘stick out’
Dombrowski’s team looking to really stick out
David Dombrowski, the architect of the Red Sox team that steamrolled the opposition in 2018, returned from the remote island of Roatan in the Caribbean last week. He was tanned, relaxed and had discovered that you can find new friends in the darnedest places.
“It was pretty isolated, but there was a gentleman from the Dominican who met me in the men’s room,” Dombrowski says. “He told me, ‘Congratulations. I’m a huge fan. I’m just going to wait outside for you.’
“Well, I walk outside, and there’s him and his wife, ready to take pictures.” Welcome to the life of a rock star. Dombrowski, who has led three franchises to four World Series berths, says it’s still hard for him to fathom what transpired last season. He won his first World Series in 1997 with the then-Florida Marlins, only to be immediately instructed to dismantle the team. He built powerhouses in Detroit, with the Tigers reaching the playoffs five times and winning two American League pennants, only to come away empty-handed in the World Series.
Now, here he is, sitting atop the baseball world.
“This is a different feeling than I’ve ever had,” Dombrowski tells USA TODAY. “I remember when we first got to the World Series in 2006 with Detroit, it was a really great feeling getting there, but when you don’t win, you’re disappointed. There was more to accomplish. That feeling never went away.
“Now, you reach the ultimate achievement.”
The next mission?
The president of baseball operations is trying to take the Red Sox where they haven’t ventured in a century: winning back-to-back World Series.
This was their fourth World Series championship since 2004, and the good folks of New England, perhaps a little spoiled now, want more. They crave history. The last time the Red Sox went to the World Series in successive years was 1915 and 1916, when Babe Ruth was pitching for them and Tris Speaker was roaming the outfield.
Why, the last team to accomplish the feat was the Yankees, and that was two decades ago. The 1992-1993 Blue Jays are the only other team to win consecutive World Series in the last 40 years.
“It’s hard, no doubt about it,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says. “You’ve got to be good. You’ve got to be healthy. You’ve got to be lucky. To replicate that on a year in and year out basis is pretty much impossible. Obviously, the roster changes.
“I remember in ’98 we won 125 games, and I traded David Wells, Graeme Lloyd and Homer Bush for Roger Clemens before the start of the ’ 99 spring training. Who the hell would break up a 125-win team but me?
“I just felt it would make us better, so we did it.”
The Red Sox, who spent a major league-high $239.5 million on their payroll last season, were willing to at least listen to offers this winter for center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., Rick Porcello and Xander Bogaerts but wound up keeping them. They lost reliever Joe Kelly to free agency, and closer Craig Kimbrel remains an unsigned free agent. And a year from now, ace Chris Sale, Hank Aaron award winner J.D. Martinez, 2016 Cy Young winner Porcello and All-Star Bogaerts are eligible for free agency.
“Ownership has been great,” Dombrowski says, “but we can’t keep them all. We’re going to have to make some hard decisions.”
They’ll go into the 2019 season with the highest payroll again, perhaps without their All-Star closer. There’s no indication they’re bringing back Kimbrel unless his price tag significantly drops.
“Craig did a great job for us; he’s a Hall of Fame reliever,” Dombrowski says, “but we have not anticipated having a large expenditure for a closer.”
The Red Sox did spend $68 million to bring back starter Nathan Eovaldi and another $6.25 million for World Series MVP Steve Pearce, so most of their band will be back together when they arrive next month in Fort Myers, Florida.
“It’s nice knowing we go back to spring training with the majority of the club intact,” Dombrowski says, “and to be in position to defend the World Series title. We should be confident, experienced and know how to win.
“But we also know what we accomplished last year doesn’t really mean anything as far as ’19 is concerned. You’ve got to start from ground zero. You can’t take anything for granted.”
Yep, just ask all of those that have won World Series championships since the Yankees from 1998 to 2000 but never repeated.
“I’m the wrong person to ask,” says Cubs President Theo Epstein, who won two titles in Boston and one in Chicago but failed to return the following year. “We tried making a lot of changes. We tried not making a lot of changes. We tried to redefine a narrative. We tried to get it out in the open why it’s so hard to repeat, hoping that would help us process it. Nothing seemed to work.
“That motivation can be hard right after you win. I’ve had players tell me it’s hard to focus intently early on the following season. Once you get past open- ing day and the first few weeks of the season, it feels like you’ve climbed Mount Everest and now you’re all of the way down to the very bottom trying to take those first few steps again.”
That World Series hangover is real. The winter is shorter. Pitching staffs are fatigued. Position players’ routines have been altered. “If you go back and look, there’s something to do with motivation besides the physical side, because teams that get to the World Series and lose tend to actually do better the following year than the teams that go to the World Series and win,” Epstein says. “So there’s some psychological component, a motivation factor.”
Indeed, just this decade, the Rangers lost the World Series in 2010 to San Francisco and were back in 2011. The Royals lost the World Series to the Giants in seven games in 2014 and won it in 2015 over the Mets.
Now, it’s the Red Sox’s turn to see whether they can defy the odds, reach the postseason four consecutive years for the first time in franchise history and be forever remembered as back-to-back champs.
“Those are the teams that stick out,” Dombrowski says. “I look at some teams over the years, and I can’t believe they didn’t win back-to-back. I can’t believe our club in Detroit never won a World Series. It’s just so hard to win in today’s world, so when you win back-to-back years, you really stand out.
“Our goal is to be one of those teams.”