BOSTON -- The news came down towards the end of the Red Sox' 9-1 win over the Indians on Tuesday night: Ben Cherington is out as Red Sox executive vice-president and general manager, and Dave Dombrowski is in as president of Baseball Operations.
It was, to say the least, a shock to all.
Not that the news was a shock based on the way the Red Sox were playing. After all, they're about to finish in last place for the second straight season, and third season out of four. A World Series championship in 2013 had become the exception under Cherington, not even close to the rule.
But it was a surprise in the manner that it came: On a Tuesday night via the team's press release during a game.
The players heard about the news either during their game or shortly after it ended, when Sam Kennedy, who will become president of the Red Sox when Larry Lucchino steps down at the end of the season, announced the move to the team in the clubhouse.
Clay Buchholz found out in the eighth inning through Dustin Pedroia.
"I've known Ben my whole career since I got drafted, he was the minor-league coordinator at the time," Buchholz said. "I guess it's along the lines of a player if you're in this organization, if you don't fulfill your role for an extended period of time, they find somebody else that will. I don't think Ben, honestly, never had a hand in on the way we played or the level that we played at or if we didn't do good enough. Obviously you'd have to be stupid not to understand that it wasn't his fault. It's the players in here.
"Little bit of a shock, I guess, that it happened tonight. As long as I've been here, the Red Sox, we have a meeting in spring training every year and the ownership comes in and says that they built teams to win baseball games and win championships, and obviously when it's going like it is or has gone this year they felt like there's needed to be a change and that's what they went with."
Like Buchholz, Pedroia has fond memories of Cherington.
"I’ve known Ben my whole time with the Red Sox," Pedroia said. "He’s been a big part of a lot of things in my career. We’ve had a lot of memories. Obviously, this is new. We’re going to miss him. I’m going to miss him. He has a lot of special relationships with guys. It’s tough."
But Cherington pieced together a team that just did not have it over the last two seasons. And the moves he made over the last offseason -- signing Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval and trading for (and then extending) Rick Porcello -- have all flopped. Mike Napoli couldn't hit and Shane Victorino couldn't stay healthy; both were traded. The pitching staff was weak from the start and the bullpen is even weaker. So how responsible do the players feel for the changes made?
"I don't know," said David Ortiz. "Front office is the one who makes the decisions, you know, and probably when a situation like this goes down it's most of the time because things aren't going the way people expect, you know what I'm saying? Probably we are responsible for situations, but sometimes that requires new moves, sometimes it doesn't, and they just went with that.
"Ben did a great job for us and did a remarkable job, one World Series under his belt. I guess sometimes organizations like to move on."
Dombrowski will meet the press on Wednesday and be formally introduced as the new man in charge of the baseball decisions. As a GM, he's improved teams throughout his career. He became GM of the Marlins in 1992 and the team won the World Series in 1997. After becoming president and GM of the Tigers in 2002, Dombrowski took them to two World Series, in 2006 and 2012. The Tigers had also won the A.L. Central Division titles between 2011-2014.
"I know that wherever he’s been, he’s won," Pedroia said. "Obviously that speaks for itself. I remember Mike Lowell" -- the Red Sox third baseman from 2006-10, who played for Dombrowski in Florida -- "used to talk about him and couldn’t say enough great things. Obviously I don’t think they would put somebody in that position that they don’t believe in. He’s pretty special at what he does. He’s done a great job for a long time."