BOSTON - Torey Lovullo has been John Farrell's right-hand man in Boston for the past three seasons.
Now that Farrell is stepping away from the game to battle cancer, Lovullo is stepping in, leaving his role as bench coach and becoming the Red Sox manager until Farrell is ready to return.
Just as Farrell is loved throughout the organization - and especially with his players - so is Lovullo. The respect for Lovullo will not be something that must be earned, because it's already been earned.
"We love Torey," Dustin Pedroia said. "I think our organization does a great job of building not just a coaching staff or people around us, but a family. Torey is going to send the same message that John does, and that goes on down the line. It's a chain of command and everyone is one voice. I know wins and losses are not where we want to be, but that's why this organization going forward is going to be back on top, because we believe in each other and we send the right message from the top to the bottom."
Lovullo will undoubtedly keep in touch with Farrell while he goes through cancer treatments and recovery, but don't expect Farrell to intervene in the daily managerial decisions. Those are up to Lovullo.
But with Lovullo taking on a new role, there's currently a void at his former job as bench coach. Perhaps that isn't for long, though.
"Still working through that," "Still working through that," GM Ben Cherington said about additions to the staff. "I wouldn't rule out adding somebody to the staff to help with the work and make sure we have enough man power. Just started talking about that today. Obviously we won't have anyone else here tonight, but I wouldn't rule out having someone else join the staff in the coming days. So we'll talk to Torey and John about that tomorrow."