Boston Red Sox Dismiss Manager Bobby Valentine

Everybody knew it was coming from far away. Frankly, it was easy to see early on in the season that Bobby Valentine wasn’t going to last as the manager of the Boston Red Sox. On Thursday, it became official: the club issued a press release firing… oops, “thanking” Valentine for his work as the bench boss of the American League East team.

Getting swept by the hated Yankees in the final series of the regular season was the last nail in Valentine’s coffin, but the funeral had been in preparation since April. He was seen as an experienced hand, brought in to stabilize an unruly clubhouse which disintegrated amid a historic collapse the previous year; that situation resulted in the firing of manager Terry Francona, who had led them to World Series championships in 2004 and 2007.

The murmurs of discontent in Red Sox Nation began when the players rejected Valentine’s attempts to bring the team to order. The drumbeats became louder when fan favorite Kevin Youkilis made his unhappiness known publicly in June. It wouldn’t be long before the disgruntled third baseman was shipped off to the Chicago White Sox for infielder Brent Lillibridge and reliever Zach Stewart, and Boston even agreed to pay $5.5 million of Youk’s $7-million salary (Lillibridge would be traded exactly one month later to the Cleveland Indians for minor-league pitcher Jose de la Torre).

After leading the club to a 69-93 record, its worst season in 47 years, Valentine has been given his walking papers. It just seems amazing that a manager with his pedigree — more than 2,000 major league games as a manager, won the 2000 National League pennant with the New York Mets, and even won a championship with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan in 2005 — could fail so badly.

The fact is that he never really had a chance to succeed. If the discontent wasn’t enough to scuttle him, the injuries were: the Red Sox used a team-record 56 players on its roster, while stars such as Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury wouldn’t be able to get on track.

Now Valentine is a free agent again. This development will likely fuel another question: will the Red Sox get the services of manager John Farrell from the Toronto Blue Jays? He has another year to go on his contract, and the Blue Jays have concluded the 2012 season with an equally unsatisfying 73-89 mark. Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos has shown himself to be a bloodless wheeler-dealer who will do almost anything to improve his team. He and his counterpart in Boston, Ben Cherington, should (and probably are) talking about prospects or a front-line player in exchange for Farrell.

Youkilis is also unsure of his future on the South Side of Chicago. Given that the Red Sox have relied on the likes of Pedro Ciriaco and Twins retread Danny Valencia to fill the gap at the hot corner, don’t rule out a return of Youk to the scene of some of his greatest career triumphs.