A good fit, but a bad marriage
HOUSTON -- I must be honest. I find it difficult to conceive of modern Red Sox life without Theo.
Yes, the Theo Era has only lasted three years. But these have been the three years constituting The Rest Of Our Baseball Lives, the three years when the Red Sox entered the 21st and 22d centuries at the same time, moving so far beyond the status quo concepts of the Yawkey-Sullivan-Harrington regimes and into the can-do thought process of the Henry-Werner-Lucchino ruling body that we are barely discussing the same franchise. And along with the innovative ideas emanating from the upper-management level, we have been subject to the creative general managing of the Boy Wonder. More to the point: our Boy Wonder. After all, we are talking about Theo Epstein, Brookline High, Class of '91.
Are you as dismayed as I that the Theo contract talks are going so poorly? I must admit that if someone had told me at the beginning of the season that a Theo re-signing would be the No. 1 Red Sox story in late October, I would have laughed. Not possible, I would have said. Theo will leave the Red Sox when Tom Menino buys a co-op on Central Park South, when Joseph Abboud goes out to dinner in a T-shirt or when the Big Dig is finally completed. I would have said that Theo will leave the Red Sox when Tim Wakefield throws a complete game using nothing but fastballs and curveballs. I would have said that Theo will leave the Red Sox when Alan Dershowitz says, ''No comment." I would have said that Theo will leave the Red Sox when Leslie Epstein says, ''You know, 'Casablanca' is a highly overrated movie."
Theo Epstein and the Red Sox seem like such a perfect fit, no?
It's apparently not as perfect a marriage as we all had been led to believe. What we seem to have here is failure to delineate.
It can't be about the money, not if it really is true that the Red Sox, as my esteemed colleagues Gordon Edes and Chris Snow have reported, have offered him a three-year deal at $1.2 million per. If that really is the case, and he hasn't leaped across the table, pen in hand, then there has to be a very serious power struggle in progress, one that John Henry can adjudicate, if he really wants to. In other words, the biggest one-on-one in town has got to be Theo Epstein vs. Larry Lucchino.
Why else would Theo hesitate? He couldn't possibly think he's worth more than Brian Sabean (Giants) or Walt Jocketty (Cardinals) or the dean of all modern GMs, Atlanta's John Schuerholz, could he? If so, then, ''So long, kid. Have a nice life." But nah, it can't be that. It's got to be power, or delineation thereof.
I suppose we shouldn't really be surprised. For a long time, one of the favorite media areas of speculation concerning the operation of the Red Sox is just where does Theo's say on important matters end and Lucchino's begin, or if that was an issue at all? None of us have known for sure.
It is conceivable there was such an issue for two reasons. The first is the simple fact of Theo's age (31), which we have always been officially assured is a nonissue. But would a man such as Henry really hand the keys to the jag, no questions asked, to someone who wasn't even born when man first walked on the moon? The second is that team president and CEO Lucchino is presumed to be too, well, aggressive to cede all that juicy clout to anyone, let alone someone this particular management group had identified and nurtured as ''their" prodigy. Theirs, no one else's.
We have complicated personal dynamics here. Epstein owes his professional rise to Lucchino and the San Diego Padres. They brought the young Yalie west, sent him to law school, and welcomed him into the family. They provided him with the necessary training, giving him a chance to scout and touch all the other bases that enable someone to be a modern general manager.
They must feel exceptionally proprietary toward him. They may even feel absolutely paternal. And they may feel he simply ''owes" them, and owes them big time. He was their creation. Has he now become, in their eyes, more than merely ungrateful? Has he become, in their eyes, their very own Frankenstein's monster?
It's a thought.
There was some arrogance on their part. We can be safe in the knowledge that they low-balled him to start. Very good sources indicate that the original offer was in the neighborhood of $850,000 a year, and while that represents a substantial raise from the $350,000 Theo was making, it is far below what a successful general manager of the Boston Red Sox should be making, especially when said GM has played a very large role in bringing the first world championship to Boston since 1918. These people are milking every last dollar out of every last inch of real estate available at that ballpark. They are willing to pay their ballplayers market value. But they were attempting to save a few (hey, everything's got to be viewed in context) bucks at the expense of The Kid, the one they ''created." It's hard not to look at it that way.
Now they are doing right by the wallet for Theo. So why hasn't he signed? There is only one conceivable reason, and that is the relationship between himself and Lucchino, who, by the way, is somewhat misunderstood. There is a perception that he is in over his head when he speaks of baseball matters. Lucchino was an athlete. He has been around big-time sports (Redskins, Orioles, Padres, and Red Sox) for a long time. He has a right to an opinion. An opinion. But no self-respecting general manager can operate comfortably if Larry Lucchino strays from matters of team business and has too many final says about personnel. (Potential Theo successors, beware.)
We have absolutely no idea what goes on behind those closed Red Sox doors. We just sense that something beyond money is gumming up the works here.
Is Theo worth fussing over? Curt Schilling, Keith Foulke, David Ortiz, Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar (the first two years were good, anyway), John Olerud, Mike Timlin, Mark Bellhorn, Tony Graffanino, Bronson Arroyo, and Mike Myers are among those who have materialized on his watch. He also had the guts to pull the trigger on the sainted Nomah, thus risking the wrath of No. 5 freaks everywhere. Orlando Cabrera was a major piece of the '04 puzzle. And don't forget that the drafts are believed by people outside the organization to have been very fruitful.
Yes, he was far less successful this year. Edgar Renteria was a huge disappointment at any price, but at $10 million per he was a borderline disaster. Matt Clement was exposed. But don't forget about David Wells, who was exactly what he was supposed to be. Oh, and if you think Pedro was ever going to stay, fuhgedaboutit. Derek Lowe? It was unanimous, from top to bottom. He had lifestyled himself out of here. Theo's track record remains overwhelmingly positive.
Is Theo irreplaceable? Uh, no. Who is? But he's a perfect fit. This is the job he's always wanted (I've run into a pair of Yale classmates who'll testify he was talking about some day holding this job from the day they met him), and this is a job he's very qualified to hold. If John Henry can't make this work, life will go on, but it will be a foolish fumble on his part.
Mr. Henry is very good with computers. That expertise, as applied to the commodities market, made him a billionaire. But this is a people issue. Let's hope he's capable of handling it.
