By Matt McCarthy, 985TheSportsHub.com
Could the man Dave Dombrowski replaced in 2015 end up replacing Dave Dombrowski in 2019?
Don’t rule it out.
On this week’s episode of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Hardcore Baseball podcast, Jason Mastrodonato of The Boston Herald suggested that former Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington could be a candidate to return to run the team’s baseball operations.
“You ask yourself, legitimately, is Ben Cherington a candidate? Do you bring Ben Cherington back here to be the GM again? That’s something we’re going to keep an eye on. I think it is certainly possible,” Mastrodonato said.
Cherington resigned as general manager in 2015 when Dombrowski was hired as President of Baseball Operations. Owner John Henry said at the time that he hoped Cherington would stay in the organization and work under Dombrowski, but Cherington declined that offer and moved on.
“If you remember [the Red Sox] really wanted Ben to stay here. I was reading John Henry’s quotes from 2015 when they signed Dombrowski and Ben left and [Henry] kept saying over and over again we knew there was a chance [Cherington was going to leave] but we really hoped he would stay,” Mastrodonato added.
“They didn’t fire him and they fired everybody else…They could’ve just fired Ben, they didn’t. That relationship I think still has a chance to be rekindled.”
You can listen to the full discussion here:
Cherington has worked for the Blue Jays since 2016 as Toronto’s vice president of baseball operations. He was rumored to be a candidate for the Mets GM opening last offseason, but was reportedly “not eager” to leave the Blue Jays organization, according to Sportsnet in Canada.
You can hear Matt McCarthy on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s own Hardcore Baseball podcast and on various 98.5 The Sports Hub programs. Follow him on Twitter @MattMcCarthy985.
