He had one year remaining on his contract with the Blue Jays so Boston will send infielder Mike Aviles to Toronto as compensation. There is also talk of the Red Sox receiving a player in return from the Blue Jays but we don't know who that would be yet-there have been whispers of Adam Lind. Losing Aviles would have happened away since Pedro Ciriaco and to a lesser degree Jose Iglesias have taken his spot on the roster.
We can all agree that the role of manager on a baseball team has been proven to be largely irrelevant but if anyone is suited to clean up this disaster site on Yawkey Way, it's a guy that was a pitching coach here for four very successful years (2007-10). He understands the city, the franchise and the inherit pressure of the position that he's walking into.
More importantly, he has a background with Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz who are Boston's two best starting pitchers. The only way that the Red Sox will get anywhere is if those guys turn around their careers from 2012's nightmare. Other positives in his favor are his age (50) and decent major league career as a player. The fact that he was .500 in 2011 with the Blue Jays and 73-89 (four games better than the Red Sox) this season is largely irrelevant. It doesn't matter who was in charge of that mediocre squad that was decimated by injuries and underachievement.
As a fan, I'm happy that the Red Sox didn't let this process drag itself out to a ridiculous degree like last year with Valentine. There are a million issues facing that team but at least this is a decent start to turning things around. The Red Sox had lost their way for over a year but now it appears like their gaining some common sense back in their day to day operations.
UPDATE 10/21: Farrell received a three-year deal from the Red Sox and Boston received right-hander David Carpenter as part of the deal. In 33 games between the Astros and Blue Jays in 2012, the reliever had a 8.07 ERA in 32.1 innings so don't expect to ever hear from him again.
UPDATE 10/23: Former PawSox manager and Blue Jays first base coach (the last two years under Farrell) Torey Lovullo will be named Boston's bench coach in the next few days according to WEEI.com's Rob Bradford.
UPDATE 10/25: WEEI.com's Alex Speier reports that bench coach Tim Bogar won't return to the Red Sox next season.
UPDATE 10/30: Maine native and former Blue Jays third-base coach Brian Butterfield was named third-base coach for the Red Sox. Like Lovullo, he worked in the same role under Farrell in Toronto so they obviously have chemistry and a familiarity with each other.
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