BOSTON -- It's seldom pretty when the Red Sox make changes and this one, apparently, is no different.
On the surface, the Red Sox and Ben Cherington said all the right things about one another Wednesday.
But a few cracks were eventually evident. And it turns out the reason that Cherington repeatedly couldn't be "all in'' in the new management structure was that he felt he been "left out'' by ownership.
As the Red Sox introduced Dave Dombrowski as their new president of Baseball Operations, they thanked Cherington -- a Red Sox employee since 1999 - for his contributions after Cherington decided not to remain with the club in the wake of Dombrowski's appointment.
"We were hopeful that Ben would stay,'' said chairman Tom Werner. "He believes it's best for the organization if he steps aside. [Principal owner John Henry] and I were disappointed with his decision but we respect it. He was the chief architect of our success in 2013 and he's built a strong nucleus going forward.''
Henry said much the same. And Dombrowski himself added he "would have loved to have him on board.''
For his part, Cherington, in a separate farewell press conference, wished the Red Sox well, said he would continue to root for the team and accepted responsibility for the poor performance of the team in 2012, last year and this season -- all of which led to Dombrowski's hiring.
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There was no bitterness expressed by either side. Henry volunteered the Sox had told Cherington of his wish to meet with Dombrowski, whom he employed as his general manager for several seasons when the two worked for the then-Florida Marlins.
But that's where the timeline got a little hazy.
"On Aug. 4,'' recalled Henry, "when the Tigers announced the shakeup of Dave leaving, I spoke to Tom and Ben about having a conversation with Dave. Tom and I wanted to see if there was a fit for Dave within the Red Sox organization. Ben did not object.''
But as Cherington hinted at later, that was likely because he, Cherington, didn't understand the purpose of such a meeting.
Cherington thought that the Sox were talking to Dombrowski for the purposes of feedback and outside input.
The former GM said he had been engaged in talks with Henry for much of the summer in assessing what had gone wrong in their decision-making process and player evaluation methods. Cherington assumed that Henry's meeting with Dombrowski was more fact-finding in nature.
In reality, it now seems apparent that the purpose of Henry's reaching out to Dombrowksi was to see if there was a path to bring Dombrowski to oversee the team's Baseball Operations.
Cherington repeatedly expressed that Dombrowski is a smart baseball executive who will thrive in Boston. There was nothing personal toward the man who would have been his superior.
But reading between the lines, it's also evident that he was displeased with how he was treated by ownership as it pursued Dombrowski.
Cherington first became aware of that last Saturday, when he was informed during a game between the Red Sox and Mariners that the Sox were "pursuing'' Dombrowski.
"Up until Saturday, all I was thinking about was trying to find solutions for the Red Sox,'' said Cherington. "It appeared to me that the decision John and Tom were making was . . . I wasn't part of that conversation in a way that I could be all-in in making it work.''
Translation: Sox ownership wasn't totally forthright in their plans to hire Dombrowski.
Until that conversation, Cherington believed he would play a role in trying to right the Red Sox. But when he realized that Henry and Werner were seeking solutions without his involvement, it became obvious to him that he couldn't remain.
"I was hoping to be part of the solution,'' said Cherington. "I recognized that, because of our performance the last two years, at any time, that could be taken out of my hands because this is a grown-up business. When you invest what you've invested in the team and the results are the results, the GM of the Red Sox is fully accountable and I was prepared for that possibility.
"I was surprised on Saturday. I knew some sort of change was coming and I had gotten a lot out of the conversations that I had with John all summer about what sort of changes would help the Red Sox. The conversation on Saturday . . . I was surprised.''