With a postseason berth out of reach, the Boston Red Sox fired executive vice president of baseball operations Haim Broome, 40, before a doubleheader against the New York Yankees on Friday.
CEO Sam Kennedy said: “We have to be competitive, we have to play for a postseason berth, and we have to play October baseball. This is a painful day for many reasons, especially on a personal level. Both the players and the front office are to blame. We need to make a change,” he said, firing Broome after four seasons. The firing was somewhat unexpected.
Boston reached the postseason as a wild card in 2021 and lost the American League Championship to the Houston Astros in four games to two. It was the second straight year they missed fall baseball.
A product of Ivy League Yale University, Broom is an accomplished front-end man who was discovered by current LA Dodger Andrew Freeman during his time with the Tampa Bay Rays. He was promoted to general manager of operations for the prestigious Boston club in October 2019.
In 2020, Broome’s first season, the Rays traded fan-favorite and reigning MVP outfielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Freeman and Broome were gunners and assistants in Tampa Bay. The evaluation of the Betts trade is much more on the negative side.
Boston finished last in the division with a 24-36 record under Ron Lesnicki, who served a one-year suspension for stealing Alex Cora’s autograph in 2019 and was the de facto acting manager in 2020. In 2021, Cora was reinstated as head coach after his suspension ended, and the team made the postseason. The fact that the Red Sox didn’t fire Cora after missing the postseason two years in a row, but instead fired Broome, the team’s executive vice president of baseball operations, speaks volumes about MLB’s system.
In the meantime, Broome has been praised for his work in Boston. Last offseason, he let shortstop Xander Bogaerts (San Diego Padres) walk as a free agent and signed third baseman Rafael Devers to a 10-year, $313.5 million extension to be his franchise player, but his performance regressed and he was unable to avoid the firing knife for the second straight year in a fall baseball disappointment. He’s still young enough that he’s likely to be picked up by another team.
Major League Baseball hasn’t fired a manager in-season for poor performance this year. However, presidents of baseball operations and GMs have been fired for taking responsibility for poor performance. In August, Chicago White Sox President of Operations Kenny Williams and GM Rick Hahn were fired simultaneously. This time, Boston fired Haim Broome. MLB owners hold front office personnel primarily responsible for poor performance, with managers second. They believe the roster is out of whack.
The KBO holds managers accountable for poor performance. In the case of the Lotte Giants, it was general manager Sung Min-kyu who handed the baton to foreign manager Larry Sutton. Although he stepped down for health reasons, the primary responsibility for the poor performance lies with Sung, who was appointed in the winter of 2019. His managerial choices, foreign signings, and player evaluations have been subpar.
New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman is the most unsettling figure after this season. It’s been seven years since the Yankees missed the postseason since 2016. Fans need someone to blame and scapegoat for their disappointment. More blame is being heaped on Cashman than on field manager Aaron Boone.스포츠토토
Cashman is MLB’s longest-serving GM, having been hired in February 1998. The second is John Mozeliak of the St. Louis Cardinals, who was hired in October 2007. Two prestigious franchises, led by the first and second longest-serving GMs, are experiencing the bitter taste of fall baseball disappointment at the same time this year. If you get knocked down, you get up.