The moment Terry Francona stepped down as the manager of the Red Sox, people have been speculating on who the next person would be to lead the team. Â Many names have been thrown around but none have been giving the serious consideration by the media and the fans that John Farrell’s name has received.
The former pitching coach for the Red Sox from 2006 through 2010, Farrell’s first season as a manager was in 2011 with the Blue Jays where he led them to an 81-81 record. Â The September collapse of the Red Sox due largely in part to poor pitching and Farrell’s success with the pitching staff, especially in 2007, made him a popular subject for the rumors.
The only thing standing in the way of the Red Sox speaking to him about the job would be getting permission from the Blue Jays to do so.  As quickly as the rumors began, reports started filtering out that the Jays had no policy against letting their employees speak to other teams for a lateral move.  So, woo-hoo, break out the champagne because the Red Sox hired Theo Epstein’s right hand man to replace him and now they’re going to hire Tito’s former right hand man to replace him and it’ll be like they’re both still here and Red Sox Nation can dare to be happy again!
But wait…
While Red Sox fans were sitting in joyful anticipation of the announcement that the Red Sox would be speaking to John Farrell (and assuming that, of course he’d want to come back to Boston when he already had a managerial job in Toronto…who wouldn’t want to work in Boston?) another report came out and this one wasn’t based on rumors, it was based on a statement Blue Jays President Paul Beeston and General Manager Alex Anthopoulos released together:
“Due to the distraction caused by media speculation regarding our employee permission policy, the Toronto Blue Jays have amended their policy and will not grant permission for lateral moves.“
Based on seemingly nothing more than rumor and speculation swirling around the Internet, the Blue Jays organization changed one of their policies in an effort to insure their manager stays put. Â The pen might be mightier than the sword but the Internet has everything beat.
The Red Sox have their list of potential managers and John Farrell isn’t on it anymore (if he ever was to begin with) and Red Sox fans will have to be all right with that. Â Back in the dark days after Grady Little was given the boot in 2003, Sox fans were in a whirlpool of confusion and anxiety, wondering what would happen to their team and that ended up turning out all right.
(Originally published on Examiner.com)